THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Jj 


CljcoUorc  C.  JHtmffer,  3D.S). 


ON  THE  THRESHOLD.     Lectures  to  Young  People. 

i6mo,  $1.00. 
THE  FREEDOM  OF  FAITH.    A  volume  of  Sermons, 

with  an   Essay  on   "  The   New  Theology."     i6mo, 

$1.50. 
LAMPS  AND  PATHS.     Sermons  to  Children.     i6mo, 

$1.00. 
THE  APPEAL  TO  LIFE.     Sermons.     i6mo,  $1.50. 
HORACE    BUSHNELL.     With  two  Portraits  of  Dr. 

Bushnell.     i2mo,  $2.00. 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  &  CO. 
Boston  and  New  York. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 

PREACHER    AND 
THEOLOGIAN 

By  THEODORE   T.  MUNGER 


||eiRWrgiflcPreg|| 


BOSTON   AND   NEW   YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY 

(Sfoe  Ifttoergibe  £re£#,  Camfcn&ss 
1899 


Copyright,  1899, 
By  THEODORE  T.  MTJNGER. 

All  rights  reserved. 


TIL 


SDcbicatcti 

TO 

MRS.  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

And  her  daughters, 

One  of  whom, 

FRANCES   LOUISA  BUSHNELL 

Died  while  this  book  was  in  preparation, 

but  not  too  soon  to  lend  to  it  the 

influence  of  her  keen 

insight  and  sound 

judgment 


1458911 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

This  book  owes  its  existence  to  the  fact  that 
no  full  and  connected  account  of  Dr.  Bushnell's 
work  as  a  theologian  has  yet  been  made.  He  has 
been  abundantly  reviewed  and  criticised,  but  that 
full  picture  of  him  as  dealing  with  the  theological 
questions  of  the  day,  which  his  greatness  and  his 
influence  deserve,  has  not  been  drawn. 

Not  many  years  after  his  death,  his  daughter 
Mrs.  Mary  Bushnell  Cheney,  with  the  aid  of  her 
sister  Miss  Frances  Louisa  Bushnell,  prepared  a 
biography  with  such  grace  of  treatment  and  care- 
fulness of  detail  that  nothing  more  in  the  way  of 
personal  history  could  be  desired,  but  it  made  no 
attempt  to  deal  with  his  theological  treatises  in  a 
critical  and  thorough  way,  though  it  shed  light 
upon  them  at  many  points,  by  the  closeness  with 
which  his  life  was  depicted. 

After  an  extensive  sale  its  publication  has  been 
discontinued,  and  it  is  no  longer  to  be  found  in 
the  book  market.     But  for  this  fact,  I  would  not 


vi  PREFATORY  NOTE 

have  undertaken  the  preparation  of  the  present 
volume  ;  nor  could  I  have  written  it  without  an 
undue  use  of  the  earlier  volume,  so  fully  did 
that  comprise  what  must  enter  into  a  proper  study 
of  the  subject. 

It  was  with  the  cordial  sympathy  and  assistance 
of  the  family  of  Dr.  Bushnell  that  I  entered  upon 
the  difficult  task  of  combining  a  biographical 
sketch  with  a  critical  analysis  of  his  works. 

I  desire  to  make  my  most  grateful  acknowledg- 
ments to  Messrs.  Harper  &  Brothers,  the  publish- 
ers of  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Horace  Bushnell,"  for 
their  courtesy  in  permitting  me  to  use  freely  what- 
ever material  I  have  seen  fit  to  incorporate  into 
these  pages. 

I  would  also  acknowledge  the  courtesy  of  Messrs. 
Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  the  publishers  of  the 
works  of  Bushnell,  and  of  Mrs.  Horace  Bushnell, 
the  holder  of  the  copyrights,  for  according  the 
same  liberty  to  make  extended  extracts  from  them 
in  the  following  pages. 

T.  T.  MUNGER. 

New  Haven,  September  1,  1899. 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

CHAPTER   I 
Early  Life 1 

CHAPTER  II 
College  and  Professional  Studies 15 

CHAPTER  HI 
The  Theological  Situation 31 

CHAPTER   IV 
Ministry  from  1833  to  1845 49 

CHAPTER  V 
Christian  Nurture 65 

CHAPTER  VI 
Reception  of  Christian  Nurture 89 

CHAPTER  VII 
Theory  of  Language 99 

CHAPTER  VHI 
"  God  in  Christ  " HI 

CHAPTER  IX 
Days  of  Accusation 133 

CHAPTER   X 

Letters  on  "  God  in  Christ  "  and  "  Christ  in  The- 
ology"     161 

CHAPTER  XI 
Pastoral  and  Ecclesiastical  Experiences 179 


VU1  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XII 
Search  for  Health 195 

CHAPTER  XHI 

"  Nature  and  the  Supernatural  " 207 

CHAPTER  XIV 
"  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice  " 235 

CHAPTER  XV 
Sermons 273 

CHAPTER  XVI 

Essays  and  Addresses 293 

CHAPTER   XVH 
Home  Life  and  Last  Days 327 

CHAPTER  XVIH 
Estimates 353 

CHAPTER  XLX 
The  Work  of  Bushnell 377 

Index 415 


NOTE  ON  THE  PORTRAITS. 

The  photogravure  frontispiece  ia  from  a  daguerreotype  made 
ahout  1847.  The  other  photogravure  (page  340)  is  from  a  crayon 
by  Cheney  made  some  years  later. 


CHRONOLOGY 

1802.  April  14.     Birth  in  Litchfield,  Conn. 

1805.  Removal  of  family  to  New  Preston,  Conn. 

1821.  United  with  church  in  New  Preston. 

1823.  Entered  Yale  College. 

1827.  Was  graduated  from  Yale  College. 

1827-28.     Taught  school  in  Norwich,  Conn. 

1828-29.     In  New  York,  as  Associate  Editor  of  Journal  of 

Commerce. 
1829-31.     Tutor  at  Yale  College.     Pursued  Law  studies. 
1831.  Entered  Theological  School  in  New  Haven,  Conn. 

1833.  May  22.     Ordained  Pastor  of  North  Church  in 

Hartford,  Conn. 
1833.  September  13.     Married  in  New  Haven  to  Mary 

Apthorp. 

1840.  Invited  to  become  President  of  Middlebury  Col- 

lege, Vermont.     Declined. 

1841.  Received   degree   of   Doctor   of   Divinity   from 

Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn. 

1842.  Lectured  at  Bridgeport,  Brooklyn,  New  York, 

and  Norwich,  and  gave   Commencement   ad- 
dress at  Hudson,  Ohio. 
1845.  Visited  Europe  in  search  of  health. 

1849.  Hartford    Central     Association     discussed     the 

book   "God   in   Christ."       Errors  not   found 
fundamental. 

1850.  Remonstrances     and    Complaints    of     Fairfield 

West   Association    to   the    Hartford    Central 
Association  upon  their  action  in  the  case  of 
Dr.  Bushnell. 
1852.  Fairfield  West  Association  again  remonstrated  in 

an  appeal  to  the  Associated  Ministers  of  the 
General  Association  of  Connecticut. 


x  CHRONOLOGY 

1852.  North  Church  of  Hartford  withdrew  from  Con- 

sociation. 

1852.  Journey  to  the  West,  because  of  ill-health. 

1853.  May  22.     Anniversary  of   twenty  years'  settle- 

ment over  North  Church,  Hartford,  Conn. 

1854.  Last  measure  adopted  by  Fairfield  West  Associ- 

ation addressed  to  General  Association  of  New 
Haven,  Conn. 

1854.  Protest  of  the  Pastoral  Union  to  the  Pastors  and 

Churches  of  New  England.  , 

1855.  Journey  to  Cuba  and  the  South,  because  of  con- 

tinued ill-health. 

1856.  Life  in  California. 

1856.  Invited  to  the  Presidency  of  the  College  of  Cal- 

ifornia. Declined  in  1861,  after  securing  loca- 
tion, and  rendering  valuable  service  in  other 
ways. 

1859.  Resigned  from  North  Church,  Hartford,  on  ac- 

count of  continued  ill-health,  and  against  unan- 
imous wish  of  people. 
1859-60.     Life  in  Minnesota. 

1860.  Spent  in  part  at  Clifton  Springs,  New  York. 
1861-75.     In   Hartford,    Conn.,    writing    and    occasionally 

preaching.      Visits   to   the   Adirondack^   and 

elsewhere. 
1870.  Preached    sermon    at    the    Installation   of    the 

Rev.  Washington  Gladden,  LL.  D.,  in  North 

Adams,  Mass. 
1876.  Received    message   from    Common     Council   of 

Hartford,    announcing    name    of    "  Bushnell 

Park." 
1876.  February  17.     Death  in  Hartford,  Conn. 

1876.  Funeral  sermon  preached  in  Hartford  by  succes- 

sor, the  Rev.  Nathaniel  J.  Burton,  D.  D. 
1876.  March  26.     Memorial  sermon,  preached  in  Chapel 

of  Yale  University  by  President  Noah  Porter, 

D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


PUBLISHED  WEITINGS 

1835.  Sermon  :  "  Crisis  of   the   Church,"  delivered  at 

Hartford,  Conn.     First  sermon  published. 

1836.  Article  :  "  Revivals  of  Religion,"  included  eleven 

years  later  in  "  Christian  Nurture." 

1837.  Address  :  "  The  True  Wealth  and  Weal  of  Na- 

tions."    Phi  Beta  Kappa  at  Yale  University, 
entitled  "  Principles  of  National  Greatness  " 
in  pamphlet,  and  earliest  of  papers  in  "  Work 
and  Play." 
1839.  Address  :  "  Revelation,"  before  Society  of  Inquiry 

at  Andover,  Mass. 

1839.  Sermon  :  "  A  Discourse  on  the  Slavery  Question," 

at  Hartford,  Conn. 

1840.  Sermon  :  "  American  Politics." 

1842.  Address  :    "  Stabihty   of    Change,"   Commence- 

ment at  Hudson,  Ohio. 

1844.  Articles  :  "  The  Great  Time-keeper,"  in  "  The 

National  Preacher."  "  Taste  and  Fashion," 
and  "  Growth,  not  Conquest,  the  True  Method 
of  Christian  Progress,"  in  the  "New  Eng- 
lander." 

1844.  Sermon  :  "  Politics  under  the  Law  of  God." 

1846.  Article  :  "  The   Oregon  Question,"  published  in 

London. 

1846.  Sermon  :    "  The   Day  of   Roads,"  at   Hartford, 

Conn. 

1846.  Address  :  "  Agriculture  at  the  East,"  delivered 

before  the  Hartford  County  Agricultural  So- 
ciety. Incorporated  in  "  Work  and  Play  "  (in 
first  edition  only). 

1847.  Two  discourses  :  "  Christian  Nurture,"  published 

by  Massachusetts  Sunday  School  Society. 


xii  PUBLISHED  WRITINGS 

1847.  Article  :  "  The  Christian  Alliance,"  in  the  "  New 

Englander." 
1847.  Sermon  :  "  Prosperity  our  Duty." 

1847.  Address  :  "  Barbarism  the  First  Danger."  Printed 

by  Home  Missionary  Society. 

1848.  Oration  :    "  Work  and  Play,"  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

at  Harvard  University. 

1849.  Book  :  "  God  in  Christ,"  prefaced  by  a  disserta- 

tion on  Language. 

1849.  Address  :  "  The  Founders  Great  in  their  Uncon- 

sciousness," before  the  New  England  Society 
of  New  York,  on  Forefathers'  Day. 

1851.  Book  :  "  Christ  in  Theology." 

1851.  Address  :    "Speech   for   Connecticut,"  at   New 

Britain,  Conn. 

1851.  Address  :  "  Age  of   Homespun,"  at  the   Litch- 

field Centennial  Celebration.  Incorporated  in 
«  Work  and  Play." 

1852.  Lecture  :  "Revealed  Religion,"    at   Cambridge, 

Mass. 

1853.  May  22.     Commemorative  sermon,  on  the  anni- 

versary of  settlement,  twenty  years  previous, 
over  the  North  Church,  Hartford,  Conn. 

1854.  Sermon  :   "  The    Northern   Iron,"  at   Hartford, 

Conn. 

1856.  Sermon  :  "  Society  and  Religion,  a  Sermon  for 

California." 

1857.  Address  :  "  An  Appeal :  Movement  for  a  Univer- 

sity in  California." 

1857.  Sermon  :  "  A  Week-day  Sermon  to  the  Business 

Men  of  Hartford." 

1858.  Book  :  "  Sermons  for  the  New  Life." 
1858.  Book  :  "  Nature  and  the  Supernatural." 

1858.  Article  :    "  California,    its    Characteristics    and 

Prospects,"  in  "  New  Englander." 

1859.  July  3.     Sermon:  "  Parting  Words,"  on  occasion 

of  leaving  North  Church,  Hartford,  Conn. 

1860.  Book  :  "Character   of   Jesus,"  being   the  tenth 

chapter  of  "  Nature  and  the  Supernatural." 


PUBLISHED  WRITINGS  xiii 

1861.  Sermon  :  "  Reverses   Needed,"  a   discourse  de- 

livered on  the  Sunday  after  the  disaster  at 
Bull  Run. 

1861.  Book  :  "  Christian  Nurture,"  published  in  present 

form. 

1863.  Article  :  "  Loyalty,"  in  «  New  Englander." 

1864.  Book:  "Work  and  Play." 

1864.  Book  :  "  Christ  and  his  Salvation." 

1865.  Oration  :  "  Our  Obligations  to  the  Dead,"  deliv- 

ered at  the  Commemorative  Celebration  held 
in  honor  of  the  Alumni  of  Yale  University 
who  had  served  their  country  in  the  civil 
war.     Incorporated  in  "  Building  Eras." 

1866.  Book  :  "  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice." 

1866.  Address  :  "  Training  for  the  Pulpit,"  delivered 

at  Andover  Seminary,  published  in  "  Hours 
at  Home,"  and  afterward  incorporated  in 
"  Building  Eras,"  under  title  "  Pulpit  Talent." 

1866.  Article  :  "  The  Natural  History  of  the  Yaguey 

Family,"  published  in  "  Hours  at  Home." 

1868.  Book  :  "  The  Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things." 

1868.  Article  :  "  Science  and  Religion,"   published  in 

"  Putnam's  Magazine." 

1868.  Article  :  "  Meaning  and  Use  of  the  Lord's  Sup- 

per," published  in  the  "  Advance." 

1869.  Article  :  "  History  of  the  Hartford  Park,"  pub- 

lished in  "  Hearth  and  Home." 

1869.  Article  :  "  Progress,"   published   in    "  Hours   at 

Home." 

1869.  Book  :  "  The  Reform  against  Nature,"  on  Wo- 

man's Suffrage. 

1869.  Sermon  :  "God's  Thoughts  fit  Bread   for  Chil- 

dren," before  Connecticut  Sunday  School 
Teachers'  Convention. 

1870.  Address  :  Commencement,  Williams  College. 
1871-72.     Series  of  articles  on  Prayer,   published    in  the 

"  Advance." 
1872.  Book  :  "  Sermons  on  Living  Subjects." 


xiv  PUBLISHED  WRITINGS 

1874.  Book  :  "  Forgiveness  and   Law,"   afterward   in- 

corporated as  second  volume  of  "  The  Vicari- 
ous Sacrifice." 

1881.  Book  :  "  Building  Eras." 


CHAPTEE  I 

EARLY  LIFE 


"  One  comfort  is,  that  Great  Men,  taken  up  in  any  way,  are 
profitable  company.  We  cannot  look,  however  imperfectly, 
upon  a  great  man,  without  gaining  something  by  him.  He  is  the 
living  light-fountain,  which  it  is  good  and  pleasant  to  be  near. 
The  light  which  enlightens,  which  has  enlightened,  the  darkness 
of  the  world :  and  this  not  a  kindled  lamp  only,  but  rather  as  a 
natural  luminary  shining  by  the  gift  of  Heaven ;  a  flowing  light- 
fountain,  as  I  say,  of  native  original  insight,  of  manhood  and 
heroic  nobleness ;  —  in  whose  radiance  all  souls  feel  that  it  is 
well  with  them.  On  any  terms  whatsoever,  you  will  not  grudge 
to  wander  in  such  neighborhood  for  a  while."  —  Carlylk, 
Heroes,  p.  2. 


HORACE  BUSHNELL 


CHAPTER  I 

EARLY   LIFE 

Connecticut  may  be  called  a  mother  of  theo- 
logians. 

Two  Puritan  divines,  born  in  England,  —  John 
Davenport  and  Thomas  Hooker,  —  laid  the  foun- 
dations of  the  State,  and  for  a  generation  virtually 
governed  it.  In  the  next  century  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards brought  Davenport's  theocracy  to  a  full 
end,  and  enforced  Hooker's  theory  of  popular  gov- 
ernment. Edwards,  the  first  of  that  group  of 
theologians  known  under  his  name,  or  as  the 
New  England  School,  was  born  in  1703,  and  was 
followed  by  Bellamy,  Hopkins,  West,  Smalley, 
and  Emmons.  A  generation  later  came  Lyman 
Beecher  and  the  New  Haven  divines,  —  Taylor, 
Fitch,  and  Goodrich.  Edwards  the  younger  and 
President  D  wight,  —  a  grandson  of  the  elder  Ed- 
wards, —  though  born  in  Massachusetts,  early  be- 
came residents  of  Connecticut  and  prominent  mem- 
bers of  the  school.1 

1  Bushnell  refers  to  this  gToup  of  theologians  in  his  address, 
u  Historical  Estimate  of  Connecticut,"  Work  and  Play,  p.  215. 


4  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

Its  unity,  if  not  its  existence,  was  clue  to  Ed- 
wards, to  the  fact  that  all  were  educated  at  Yale 
College,  then  primarily  a  school  of  theology,  and, 
on  the  part  of  the  later  generation,  that  they 
were  the  pupils  of  President  Dwight,  whose  bril- 
liant and  popular  modifications  of  its  theology  cap- 
tivated their  minds.  Deeper  reasons  doubtless  may 
be  found,  reaching  back  of  Edwards  and  below  all 
personal  influences.  They  represent  a  phase  in  the 
evolution  of  human  thought  and  the  divine  progress 
of  the  world. 

The  relation  of  Horace  Bushnell  to  this  school 
will  become  apparent  in  the  following  pages.  By 
local  associations,  by  education  and  ecclesiastical 
ties,  his  relations  to  it  were  very  close  ;  close  also 
in  many  ways  were  his  religious  habits  and  sym- 
pathies. If  he  is  to  be  classed  with  it,  it  must  be 
with  wide  exceptions  and  violent  contrasts.  But 
whatever  his  relation,  it  formed  a  strong  and  defi- 
nite background  upon  which  he  stands  out  a  clear- 
cut  figure,  not  dwarfed  by  the  greatness  of  the 
men  behind  him,  and  fit  in  all  ways  to  be  classed 
either  with  them  or  against  them. 

My  purpose  in  this  volume  is  not  to  give  a  full 
history  of  the  life  of  Bushnell,  but  rather  to  follow 
its  thread  with  sufficient  care  to  get  at  the  real 
character  of  the  man,  and  more  especially  to  as- 
certain his  place  among  the  religious  leaders  of 
America,  his  relation  to  the  thought  of  his  day, 
and  his  influence  upon  it. 

He  was  born  April  14,  1802,  in  the  county  and 


EARLY  LIFE  5 

town  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut.  The  exact  place 
where  he  first  saw  the  light  was  the  small  village 
of  Bantam,  a  mile  or  two  from  Litchfield,  on  the 
shores  of  a  lake  of  the  same  name.  His  lineage 
on  his  father's  side  is  traced  to  the  first  settlers 
of  Guilford,  Connecticut.  Here,  apparently,  the 
family  remained  until  the  sixth  generation  from 
Francis,  the  first  settler,  when  we  find  Abraham 
in  New  Canaan,  near  Litchfield,  where  he  married 
Miss  Molly  Ensign.  The  second  of  their  twelve 
children  bore  his  mother's  name,  Ensign,  and  was 
the  father  of  Horace  Bushnell.  The  family  is 
probably  of  Huguenot  descent,  and  is  marked  by 
the  best  qualities  of  that  blood,  —  mental  alert- 
ness and  religious  sincerity.  Ensign  Bushnell  and 
his  wife  Dotha,  whose  maiden  name  was  Bishop, 
removed  to  New  Preston,  about  fourteen  miles 
from  Litchfield,  when  Horace  was  three  years  old. 
Here  he  entered  upon  an  inherited  pursuit,  — 
wool  carding  and  cloth  dressing  by  machinery, 
—  to  which  he  added  that  of  farming.  It  was  in 
this  way  that  the  more  energetic  people  in  the 
rural  districts  of  New  England  often  supplemented 
the  hard  conditions  of  the  soil.  It  had  much  to 
do  with  the  mental  development  of  their  son,  that 
he  was  brought  up  in  the  atmosphere  and  exercise 
of  two  distinct  occupations ;  it  was  an  early  lesson 
in  that  comprehensiveness  which  was  the  charac- 
teristic of  his  thought.  He  remained  at  home 
until  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age.  Up  to 
that  time  he  had  been  a  hard  worker  in  the  factory 


6  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

and  on  the  farm ;  each  was  a  special  school  for 
training  eye  and  hand,  mind  and  heart.  The 
whole  environment  was  the  best  possible  for  de- 
veloping such  a  man  as  he  was  to  be.  The  region 
is  "  a  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of  fountains  and 
depths,  springing  forth  in  valleys  and  hills."  The 
landscape  is  full  of  the  peculiar  charm  of  western 
New  England  scenery,  —  a  tumble  of  hills,  broken 
by  occasional  peaks  higher  than  the  rest,  one  of 
which  is  now  known  as  Mount  Bushnell,  a  wind- 
ing lake,  brooks  rushing  down  from  wooded  crests 
through  wild  ravines,  precipitous  heights,  dense 
forests,  broad,  undulating  stretches  of  field  and 
pasture.  It  is  fortunate  that  one  so  open  to 
nature  and  so  receptive  of  its  meaning  should  have 
been  reared  amid  such  forms  of  it,  for  it  was 
inevitable  that  nature  should  play  a  great  part 
in  his  thought.  His  deepest  impressions  did  not 
come  from  books  nor  from  contact  with  men,  but 
from  nature,  and  nothing  was  quite  real  to  him 
until  it  had  been  submitted  to  its  tests.  Other 
influences  —  more  consciously  felt  —  mingled  with 
these,  and  left  an  abiding  impress  upon  his  charac- 
ter. The  homestead  was  on  the  slope  of  a  broad- 
backed  hill  that  stretched  away  for  a  mile  to  the 
summit,  on  which  stood  the  only  church  in  the 
town.  The  house  was  one  of  those  which  marked 
the  best  period  of  rural  architecture  in  New  Eng- 
land, —  roomy,  cheerful,  and  with  an  indefinable 
air  of  dignity,  simplicity,  and  comfort,  —  character, 
in  brief,  in  the  terms  of  architecture.     Just  below 


EARLY  LIFE  7 

rushed  a  stream,  the  outlet  of  Lake  "Waramaug,  a 
beautiful  sheet  of  water,  hidden  by  an  intervening 
hill,  but  near  enough  to  serve  the  ends  of  fishing 
and  boating,  sports  which  Bushnell  followed  all 
his  days. 

The  religion  of  the  family  is  described  as  "  com- 
posite." The  father  imbibed  from  his  mother, 
who  seems  to  have  been  a  woman  of  remarkable 
character,  Arminian  views,  while  the  mother  had 
been  reared  in  the  Episcopal  Church.  Both,  how- 
ever, became  members  of  the  Congregational 
Church.  In  such  a  family  this  variety  of  religious 
training  and  atmosphere  stood  for  something,  and 
its  effect  upon  the  son  is  beyond  measurement, 
and  can  be  traced  through  all  his  history,  the  two 
elements  blending  rather  than  antagonizing  as 
time  went  on.  It  is  a  fact  to  be  kept  in  mind 
that  he  was  not  reared  under  the  influence  of  the 
strict  Calvinism  of  the  day.  He  was  thus  saved 
from  an  over-violent  reaction,  and  when  it  came, 
there  were  within  him  places  of  refuge  to  which 
he  could  flee.  The  religious  atmosphere  of  this 
home  is  well  described  by  a  younger  brother,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  George  Bushnell :  — 

"  He  was  born  in  a  household  where  religion 
was  no  occasional  and  nominal  thing,  no  irksome 
restraint  nor  unwelcome  visitor,  but  a  constant 
atmosphere,  a  commanding  but  genial  presence. 
In  our  father  it  was  characterized  by  eminent 
evenness,  fairness,  and  conscientiousness ;  in  our 
mother  it  was  felt  as  an  intense  life  of  love,  utterly 


8  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

unselfish  and  untiring  in  its  devotion,  yet  thought- 
ful, sagacious,  and  wise,  always  stimulating  and 
ennobling,  and  in  special  crises  leaping  out  in 
tender  and  almost  awful  fire.  If  ever  there  was  a 
child  of  Christian  nurture,  he  was  one  ;  nurtured, 
I  will  not  say,  in  the  formulas  of  theology  as 
sternly  as  some ;  for  though  he  had  to  learn  the 
Westminster  Catechism,  its  formulas  were  not 
held  as  of  equal  or  superior  authority  to  that  of 
the  Scriptures ;  not  nurtured  in  what  might  be 
called  the  emotional  elements  of  religion  as  fer- 
vently as  some,  but  nurtured  in  the  facts  and 
principles  of  the  Christian  faith  in  their  bearing 
upon  the  life  and  character;  and  if  ever  a  man 
was  true  to  the  fundamental  principles  and  the 
customs  which  prevailed  in  his  early  home,  even 
to  his  latest  years,  he  was." 

The  mother  was  in  the  communion  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  when  Horace  was  born,  and  so  he 
"  had  it  always  for  his  satisfaction,  so  far  as  he 
properly  could,  that  he  was  Episcopally  regener- 
ated ;  "  but  the  removal  to  New  Preston  took  the 
family  into  the  Congregational  Church,  —  there 
being  no  other,  —  where  a  strict  Calvinism  pre- 
vailed. The  father  often  protested  against  the 
"  tough  predestinationism,  and  the  rather  over- 
total  depravity  of  the  sermon,"  but  was  checked 
by  the  wife,  though  in  sympathy  with  her  husband, 
"for  the  sake  of  the  children."  Both  entered 
heartily  into  the  life  of  the  church,  accepting 
what  seemed  to  them  good,  and  getting  along  as 


EARLY  LIFE  9 

well  as  they  could  with  the  rest.  Here  we  have  a 
foreshadowing  of  the  history  of  the  son,  —  protest 
of-  mind  and  heart  against  intolerable  doctrines, 
and  acceptance  of  what  was  intermingled  with 
them,  but  was  deeper  and  higher,  and  refusal  to 
tear  them  asunder  "  because  of  the  children "  of 
the  Kingdom. 

He  writes  of  his  mother  with  tender  reverence 
and  keen  analysis  :  — 

"  She  was  the  only  person  I  have  known  in  the 
close  intimacy  of  years  who  never  did  an  incon- 
siderate, imprudent,  or  any  way  excessive  thing 
that  required  to  be  afterwards  mended.  In  this 
attribute  of  discretion  she  rose  even  to  a  kind  of 
sublimity.  I  never  knew  her  give  advice  that 
was  not  perfectly  justified  by  results.  Her  reli- 
gious duties  and  graces  were  also  cast  in  this 
mood,  —  not  sinking  their  flavor  in  it,  but  having 
it  raised  to  an  element  of  superior,  almost  divine, 
perception.  Thus  praying  earnestly  for  and  with 
her  children,  she  was  discreet  enough  never  to 
make  it  unpleasant  to  them  by  too  great  frequency. 
She  was  a  good  talker,  and  was  often  spoken  of 
as  the  best  Bible  teacher  in  the  congregation ;  but 
she  never  fell  into  the  mistake  of  trying  to  talk 
her  children  into  religion.  She  spoke  to  them  at 
fit  times,  but  not  nearly  as  frequently  as  many 
mothers  do  that  are  far  less  qualified.  Whether 
it  was  meant  or  not,  there  was  no  atmosphere  of 
artificially  pious  consciousness  in  the  house.  And 
yet  she  was  preaching  all  the  time  by  her  mater- 


10  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

nal  sacrifices  for  us,  scarcely  to  be  noted  without 
tears. 

"  Whether  she  had  any  theory  for  it,  I  do  not 
know ;  but  it  came  to  pass,  somehow,  that  while 
she  was  concerned  above  all  things  to  make  her 
children  Christian,  she  undertook  little  in  the  way 
of  an  immediate  divine  experience,  but  let  herself 
down,  for  the  most  part,  upon  the  level  of  habit, 
and  condescended  to  stay  upon  matters  of  habit, 
as  being  her  humanly  allotted  field,  only  keeping 
visibly  an  upward  look  of  expectation,  that  what 
she  may  so  prepare  in  righteous  habit  will  be 
a  house  builded  for  the  occupancy  of  the  Spirit. 
Her  stress  was  laid  thus  on  industry,  order,  time, 
fidelity,  reverence,  neatness,  truth,  intelligence, 
prayer.  And  the  drill  of  the  house  in  these  was 
to  be  the  hope,  in  a  great  degree,  of  religion.  Thus, 
in  regard  to  the  first,  industry,  there  was  always 
something  for  the  smallest  to  do,  —  errands  to  run, 
berries  to  pick,  weeds  to  pull,  earnings  all  for  the 
common  property,  in  which  he  thus  begins  to  be  a 
stockholder.  So  for  both  sexes  and  all  sizes  ;  and 
how  very  close  up  to  the  gateway  of  God  is  every 
child  brought  who  is  trained  to  the  consenting  obe- 
dience of  industry !  Indeed,  there  is  nothing  in 
these  early  days  that  I  remember  with  more  zest 
than  that  I  did  the  full  work  of  a  man  for  at  least 
five  years  before  the  manly  age ;  this,  too,  under 
no  eight-hour  law  of  protective  delicacy,  but  hold- 
ing fast  the  astronomic  ordinance  in  a  service  of 
from  thirteen  to  fourteen  hours.     So  of  truth ;  I 


EAKLY  LIFE  11 

do  not  remember  ever  hearing  any  one  of  the  chil- 
dren accused  of  untruth.  We  were  not  always 
perfect  in  our  neatness,  I  confess,  but  we  had  abun- 
dant opportunity  to  be  made  aware  of  it.  This 
habit-discipline,  I  scarcely  need  say,  came  very 
near  being  a  gate  of  religion  for  us  all.  No  child 
of  us  ever  strayed  so  far  as  not  to  find  himself 
early  in  a  way  of  probable  discipleship. 

"If  it  should  seem  to  any,  in  this  little  sketch, 
that  our  family  discipline  was  too  stringent  or 
closely  restrictive,  they  would  fall  into  great  mis- 
take. There  was  restriction  in  it,  as  there  ought 
to  be.  And  yet,  when  I  look  back,  I  scarce  know 
where  to  find  it.  No  hamper  was  ever  put  on  our 
liberty  of  thought  and  choice.  We  were  allowed 
to  have  our  own  questions,  and  had  no  niggard 
scruples  forced  upon  us.  Only  it  was  given  us 
for  a  caution  that  truth  is  the  best  thing  in  the 
world,  and  that  nobody  can  afford  to  part  with  it, 
even  for  an  hour.  Thus  we  talked  freedom  and 
meant  conservatism,  and  talked  conservatism  and 
meant  freedom ;  and,  as  we  talked,  we  thought." 

We  have  made  this  long  quotation  because  it 
reveals  the  personal  equation  in  "  Christian  Nur- 
ture." Powerful  influences  lay  behind  and  around 
him.  Ancestry,  natural  scenery,  occupation,  home, 
early  training,  a  church  life  drawn  from  three 
sources,  —  well  mingled  by  faith  and  good  sense,  — 
laid  the  foundations  of  his  character  and  career. 
The  mother  taught  him  music,  in  the  simple  way  it 
was  then  learned  in  a  New  England  village,  and  so 


12  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

put  him  early  upon  one  of  his  profounclest  studies. 
She  also  conceived  and  carried  out  for  him  the  plan 
of  a  liberal  education.  This  was  a  common  thing 
in  the  respectable  New  England  family  of  the  day, 
but  with  her  it  sprang  out  of  a  prenatal  desire  that 
her  firstborn  son  should  be  consecrated  to  the  min- 
istry of  the  Gospel.  His  education  in  its  early 
stages  is  described  in  "  The  Age  of  Homespun,"  1 
"  a  graphic  delineation  of  life  of  the  olden  time 
that  has  become  classic  in  New  England  literature." 
Very  early  "  the  sense  of  power  "  awoke  within 
him,  and  it  never  forsook  him.  He  was  good- 
natured,  quiet,  over-thoughtful,  —  qualities  that 
were  resented  by  the  bullies  of  the  school,  but  he 
resorted  to  the  usual  methods  of  boys  to  establish 
supremacy,  and,  selecting  the  strongest,  in  one  vig- 
orous conflict  won  respect  and  lasting  peace.  Later 
on  he  disclosed  a  more  unusual  trait,  that  was  so 
characteristic  as  to  be  humorously  prophetic  of  his 
future.  When  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  the  moni- 
torial system  was  introduced  into  the  Academy. 
On  its  coming  his  turn  to  serve,  he  declined  both 
the  honor  and  the  duty,  on  the  ground  that  he  was 
there  to  study  and  not  to  watch  other  pupils.  It 
was  so  all  through.  In  some  autobiographical 
notes  written  late  in  Hfe  he  says :  "  I  was  almost 
never  a  president  or  a  vice-president  of  any  society, 
and  almost  never  on  any  committee.  Take  the 
report  of  my  doings  on  the  platform  of  the  world's 
business,  and  it  is  naught."     He  was  not  made  to 

1  Work  and  Play,  p.  368. 


EARLY  LIFE  13 

serve  on  committees,  but  to  furnish  materials  for 
committees,  who  often  found  more  than  they  could 
well  handle. 

In  many  other  ways  was  the  child  the  father  of 
the  man.  He  not  only  loved  nature  and  suffered 
it  to  kindle  his  imagination,  but  he  explored  it 
for  its  meanings  and  mapped  it  out  for  its  uses. 
He  was  a  born  engineer,  always  laying  out  roads 
and  building  parks,  and  finding  the  best  paths  for 
railways  among  the  hills.  The  park  in  Hartford, 
which  bears  his  name,  was  the  fruit  of  a  lifelong 
passion.  When  visiting  Dr.  Washington  Gladden 
in  North  Adams,  Bushnell  pointed  out  to  him 
where  the  park  of  the  growing  town  should  be 
located.1  Prophetic  also  were  his  early  religious 
experiences.  Heaven  lay  very  close  about  him  in 
his  early  years.  The  freshness  of  the  morning 
moved  him  to  prayer.  His  religious  impressions 
came  along  the  path  of  nature,  —  in  the  fields  and 
pastures,  —  and  so  coming  they  were  without  fear 
or  sense  of  wrong,  but  full  of  the  divine  beauty 
and  majesty.  Deeper  experiences  springing  from 
the  same  source  were  to  follow.  Nature  became 
a  permanent  factor  in  his  thought  as  a  revelation 
of  divine  things,  —  a  feature  in  which  he  bears  a 
striking  resemblance  to  Edwards.  As  he  drew 
near  to  manhood,  he  fell  away,  for  a  time,  from 

1  The  suggestion,  unfortunately,  was  not  followed,  but  the 
Congregational  Church  in  North  Adams  is  to  be  credited  with 
the  good  sense  and  courage  to  invite  Dr.  Bushnell,  when  few 
pulpits  in  New  England  were  open  to  him,  to  preach  the  sermon 
at  the  installation  of  their  young  pastor. 


14  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

this  natural  piety  into  the  dialectic  habit  of  the 
day.  When  about  seventeen,  while  tending  a 
carding-niachine,  he  wrote  a  paper,  in  which  he 
strove  to  put  Calvinism  into  logical  harmony,  and, 
in  the  interest  of  sound  reason,  to  correct  St. 
Paul's  willingness  to  be  accursed  for  the  sake  of 
his  brethren.  It  was  a  natural  and  wholesome 
start,  —  a  conforming  conscience,  which  is  a  good 
sign  in  youth,  and  yet  along  with  it  a  disposition 
to  resent  palpable  or  seeming  absurdity ;  he  will 
question  and  deny  enough  when  older,  and  he  will 
soon  learn  how  St.  Paul  used  language.  When 
he  was  nineteen,  he  united  with  the  church,  and 
a  deep  flow  of  religious  feeling  attended  the  act. 
From  that  time  his  desire  for  a  liberal  education 
deepened,  and  he  set  about  it  with  such  zeal  that 
a  year  later  he  passed  the  examinations  and  en- 
tered Yale  College. 

He  left  the  home  of  his  early  days  behind 
him  for  the  field  of  a  wider  education,  but  the  real 
education  had  already  been  gained ;  for  in  this 
home  and  in  the  world  about  it  he  had  learned 
those  lessons  that  he  repeated  in  "Christian 
Nurture,"  and  in  all  those  pages  where  nature 
appears  as  an  "  analogon  of  the  spirit." 


CHAPTER  II 

COLLEGE  AND   PROFESSIONAL  STUDIES 


c'Perplext  in  faith,  but  pure  in  deeds, 
At  last  he  beat  bis  music  out. 
There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds. 

"  He  fought  his  doubts  and  gather'd  strength, 
He  would  not  make  his  judgment  blind, 
He  faced  the  spectres  of  the  mind 
And  laid  them  :  thus  he  came  at  length 

"  To  find  a  stronger  faith  his  own  ; 

And  Power  was  with  him  in  the  night, 
Which  makes  the  darkness  and  the  bight, 
And  dwells  not  in  the  light  alone, 

"  But  in  the  darkness  and  the  cloud, 
As  over  Sinai's  peaks  of  old, 
While  Israel  made  their  gods  of  gold, 
Altho'  the  trumpet  blew  so  loud." 

In  Memoriam,  xcvi. 


CHAPTER  II 

COLLEGE    AND   PKOFESSIONAL    STUDIES 

Bushnell  entered  Yale  College  in  1823,  when 
he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  —  a  f nil-grown 
and  robust  man.  The  students  at  Yale  enter 
as  boys  and  graduate  as  men.  This  mingling  of 
ages  and  a  uniformity  of  methods  form  the  chief 
infelicity  of  the  American  college,  and  cause  most 
of  those  troubles  that  afflict  both  students  and 
teachers.  Bushnell's  career  bore  the  marks  of  a 
full-rounded  manhood.  That  he  was  treated  as  a 
boy  did  not  greatly  trouble  him,  save  once,  when 
he  led  a  rebellion  against  a  doubtfully  prescribed 
examination,  and  was  sent  home  for  a  period,  —  a 
somewhat  humorous  proceeding  in  the  light  of  his 
age  and  character. 

His  college  life  was  marked  by  intellectual 
earnestness  and  "a  wonderful  consciousness  of 
power."  He  led  his  class  in  athletic  sports,  — in 
the  simple  way  of  those  days,  —  led  it  also  on  the 
intellectual  side,  worked  hard,  lived  rather  by  him- 
self, though  not  a  recluse,  and  left  in  the  college 
an  enduring  monument  in  the  Beethoven  Society, 
which  he  organized  in  order  to  lift  the  standard  of 
the  music  in  the  chapel.     His  religious  experience 


18  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

was  what  might  have  been  expected  in  such  a  man 
and  at  such  a  period.  He  was  just  in  time  to  feel 
something  of  the  receding  wave  of  French  liberal- 
ism that  had  pervaded  the  country.  It  did  not 
cease  to  be  felt  until  some  years  later,  when  it 
died  out,  not  because  its  criticism  was  refuted,  but 
chiefly  because  the  Anglo-Saxon  will  not  long  live 
without  a  religion.  Bushnell's  experience  partook 
rather  of  skepticism  than  of  the  reaction  from  it. 
He  says  :  "  I  loved  a  good  deal  the  prudential, 
cold  view  of  things ;  my  religious  character  went 
down."  This  was  inevitable.  It  had  begun, 
after  the  fashion  of  the  day,  under  the  fervors 
of  the  revival  system,  which  he  attempted  to  keep 
alive  by  a  forced  defense  of  Calvinism ;  but  both 
fervor  and  logic  disappeared  in  the  cool  and  calm 
isolation  of  college  life.  The  Christian  nurture  in 
winch  he  had  been  reared  remained  with  him  and 
"  kept  him  a  living  soul." 

The  following  pen  picture  by  a  master  in  the 
art  —  N.  P.  Willis,  a  classmate  —  so  well  out- 
lines Bushnell  as  a  college  student,  and  so  keenly 
touches  the  secret  of  his  method  in  dealing  with 
opposite  truths,  that  we  quote  it  entire :  — 

"  Seniors  and  classmates  at  Yale,  in  1827  we 
occupied  the  third  story  back,  North  College, 
North  Entry,  —  Bushnell  in  the  northwest  cor- 
ner. As  a  student,  our  classmate  and  neighbor 
was  a  black-haired,  earnest-eyed,  sturdy,  carelessly 
dressed,  athletic,  and  independent  good  fellow, 
popular,  in  spite  of  being  both  blunt  and  exem- 


COLLEGE  AND  PROFESSIONAL  STUDIES    19 

plary.  We  have  seen  him  but  once  since  those 
days,  and  then  we  chanced  to  meet  him  on  the 
Rhine,  in  the  year  1845,  we  think, —  both  of  us 
voyagers  for  health.  But  to  our  story.  The 
chapel  bell  was  ringing  us  to  prayers  one  summer 
morning ;  and  Bushnell,  on  his  punctual  way, 
chanced  to  look  in  at  the  opposite  door,  where  we 
were,  —  with  the  longitudinal,  straight  come-and- 
go  which  we  thought  the  philosophy  of  it,  —  strap- 
ping our  razor.  '  Why,  man,'  said  he,  rushing  in 
and  seizing  the  instrument  without  ceremony,  '  is 
that  the  way  you  strap  a  razor  ? '  He  grasped 
the  strap  in  his  other  hand,  and  we  have  remem- 
bered his  tone  and  manner  almost  three  hundred 
and  sixty-five  times  a  year  ever  since,  as  he  threw 
out  his  two  elbows  and  showed  us  how  it  should 
be  done.  '  By  drawing  it  from  heel  to  point  both 
ways,'  said  he,  'thus  —  and  thus  —  you  make  the 
two  cross  frictions  correct  each  other  \ '  and  drop- 
ping the  razor  with  this  brief  lesson,  he  started  on 
an  overtaking  trot  to  the  chapel,  the  bell  having 
stopped  ringing  as  he  scanned  the  improved  edge 
with  his  equally  sharp  gray  eye.  Now,  will  any 
one  deny  that  these  brief  and  excellent  directions 
for  making  the  roughness  of  opposite  sides  con- 
tribute to  a  mutual  fine  edge  seem  to  have  been 
'  the  tune '  of  the  Doctor's  sermon  to  the  Unitari- 
ans? Our  first  hearing  of  the  discourse  was  pre- 
cisely as  we  have  narrated  it,  and  we  thank  the 
Doctor    for    most    edifying    comfort    out    of    the 


20  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

doctrine,  as  we  trust  his  later  hearers  will  after  as 
many  years."  1 

Bushnell  was  graduated  in  1827,  and  for  a  few 
months  taught  a  school  in  Norwich.  He  found  it 
uncongenial  work,  saying  that  he  "would  rather 
lay  stone  wall  any  time."  He  had  probably  got 
somewhat  away  from  his  childhood,  and  had  not 
gained  that  deeper  sympathy  with  it  which  came 
later.  His  address  at  graduation  led  to  an  en- 
gagement in  New  York  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the 
"  Journal  of  Commerce,"  on  which  he  remained 
for  ten  months,  working  incessantly  and  laying  up 
stores  of  experience  of  utmost  value.  Finding  it 
"  a  terrible  life,"  he  withdrew  from  it,  though 
invited  to  a  partnership  in  the  paper,  and  devoted 
a  half  year  to  study  in  the  Law  School  at  New 
Haven,  where  he  gained  further  stores  of  expe- 
rience that  proved  helpful  to  him,  and  which 
appear  in  several  of  his  ablest  essays,  —  notably 
in  "The  Growth  of  Law."  In  these  varied  experi- 
ences following  a  solid  course  of  study  in  college, 
and  preceded  by  a  long  youthhood  that  combined 
farm  labor  and  a  skilled  handicraft,  Bushnell  laid 
broad  foundations  for  a  career  which,  though  in- 
tensely speculative  and  spiritual,  ran  close  to  daily 
life  and  reality.  He  left  the  Law  School,  intend- 
ing to  settle  in  some  Western  city,  where  he  would 
find  his  way  into  the  practice  of  the  law  and  also 
if  possible  into  political  life.     While  at  home  on  a 

1  From  a  letter  in  The  Home  Journal,  1848,  which  refers  to 
a  sermon  preached  by  Dr.  Bushnell  in  Cambridge. 


COLLEGE  AND   PROFESSIONAL   STUDIES    21 

farewell  visit,  he  received  an  appointment  as  tutor 
in  Yale  College. 

We  quote  his  own  account  of  this  crisis  in  his 
life,  both  because  of  its  importance  and  because 
it  sheds  further  light  on  that  Christian  nurture 
which  underlay  his  life  and  entered  so  deeply  into 
his  thought. 

"  I  was  graduated,  and  then,  a  year  afterwards, 
when  my  bills  were  paid,  and  when  the  question 
was  to  be  decided  whether  I  should  begin  the  pre- 
paration of  theology,  I  was  thrown  upon  a  most 
painful  struggle  by  the  very  evident,  quite  incon- 
testable fact  that  my  religious  life  was  utterly  gone 
down.  And  the  pain  it  cost  me  was  miserably 
enhanced  by  the  disappointment  I  must  bring  on 
my  noble  Christian  mother  by  withdrawing  myself 
from  the  ministry.  I  had  run  to  no  dissipations  ; 
I  had  been  a  church-going,  thoughtful  man.  My 
very  difficulty  was  that  I  was  too  thoughtful,  sub- 
stituting thought  for  everything  else,  and  expect- 
ing so  intently  to  dig  out  a  religion  by  my  head 
that  I  was  pushing  it  all  the  while  practically 
away.  Unbelief,  in  fact,  had  come  to  be  my  ele- 
ment. My  mother  felt  the  disappointment  bitterly, 
but  spoke  never  a  word  of  complaint  or  upbraid- 
ing. Indeed,  I  have  sometimes  doubted  whether 
God  did  not  help  her  to  think  that  she  knew  bet- 
ter than  I  did  what  my  becoming  was  to  be. 

"  At  the  college  vacation  two  years  after  my 
graduation,  when  I  had  been  engaged  in  law  studies 
for   a  year,  I  was  appointed  to  a  tutorship.     A 


22  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

fortnight  after  reaching  home,  I  wrote  a  letter  to 
President  Day,  declining  the  appointment.  As  I 
was  going  out  of  the  door,  putting  the  wafer  in  my 
letter,  I  encountered  my  mother  and  told  her  what 
I  was  doing.  Remonstrating  now  very  gently,  but 
seriously,  she  told  me  that  she  could  not  think  I 
was  doing  my  duty.  '  You  have  settled  this  ques- 
tion without  any  consideration  at  all  that  I  have 
seen.  Now,  let  me  ask  it  of  you  to  suspend  your 
decision  till  you  have  at  least  put  your  mind  to  it. 
This  you  certainly  ought  to  do,  and  my  opinion 
still  further  is '  —  she  was  not  apt  to  make  her 
decision  heavy  in  this  manner  — '  that  you  had 
best  accept  the  place.'  I  saw  at  a  glance  where 
her  heart  was,  and  I  could  not  refuse  the  postpone- 
ment suggested.  The  result  was  that  I  was  taken 
back  to  New  Haven,  where,  partly  by  reason  of  a 
better  atmosphere  in  religion,  I  was  to  think  my- 
self out  of  my  over-thinking,  and  discover  how  far 
above  reason  is  trust." 

He  entered  upon  his  tutorship  in  the  autumn 
of  1829,  and  for  a  year  and  a  half  kept  up  his 
studies  in  the  law,  still  holding  to  his  purpose  of 
entering  that  profession.  But  great  experiences 
or  rather  developments  awaited  him.  He  might 
during  this  time  be  described  as  sound  in  ethics 
and  skeptical  in  religion.  Each  is  easily  explained. 
The  soundness  of  his  morality  was  due  to  his  na- 
ture and  training  ;  his  skepticism  was  chiefly  due 
to  the  theology  in  which  he  was  involved.  The  re- 
volt had  come  early  ;  he  resisted  it,  but  as  time 


COLLEGE  AND  PROFESSIONAL  STUDIES    23 

went  on,  his  doubts  grew  into  positive  unbelief, 
which  was  held  in  check  by  his  conscience.  The 
change  came  —  and  there  was  need  of  it  —  in  one 
of  those  revivals  which  occasionally  pervaded  col- 
lege life  in  those  days.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
discuss  their  nature  or  their  value.  Their  roots 
go  deep  into  theology  and  the  later  Puritan  move- 
ment, into  Biblical  interpretation,  and  also,  let  us 
not  hesitate  to  say,  into  the  religious  needs  of 
men.  They  are  not  exempt  from  the  criticism 
that  can  be  visited  on  almost  any  phase  or  form 
of  church  life,  nor  is  there  need  to  draw  a  line 
as  to  the  value  of  their  results.  They  involved 
violent  reactions,  but  they  also  drew  out  and 
set  in  motion  great  and  abiding  forces.  These 
movements  in  Yale  College  were  free  from  the 
excesses  of  those  in  the  churches  outside.  Bush- 
nell  became  a  critic  of  the  revival  system,  as  we 
shall  see,  but  he  did  not  include  in  his  thought 
that  movement  in  college  which  brought  so  great 
a  change  to  himself.  It  was  in  the  winter  of 
1831  that  this  deepening  of  religious  feeling 
began.  We  quote  an  account  of  it  given  by  his 
fellow  tutor  Dr.  McEwen,  of  New  London,  so  far 
as  it  relates  to  Bushnell. 

"  What,  then,  in  this  great  revival  was  this  man 
to  do,  and  what  was  to  become  of  him  ?  Here  he 
was  in  the  glow  of  his  ambition  for  the  future, 
tasting  keenly  of  a  new  success,  —  his  fine  passage 
at  arms  in  the  editorial  chair  of  a  New  York 
daily,  ready  to  be  admitted  to  the  bar,  successful 


24  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

and  popular  as  a  college  instructor,  —  but  all  at  sea 
in  doubt,  and  default  religiously.  That  baptism 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  and  of  fire  compassed  him 
all  about.  When  the  work  was  at  its  height,  he 
and  his  division  of  students,  who  fairly  worshiped 
him,  stood  unmoved  apparently  when  all  beside 
were  in  a  glow.  The  band  of  tutors  had  estab- 
lished a  daily  meeting  of  their  own,  and  all  were 
now  united  in  it  but  Bushnell.  What  days  of 
travail  and  wondering  those  were  over  him !  None 
dare  approach  him.  He  stood  far  more  than  pri- 
mus inter  pares  among  all.  Only  Henry  Durant 1 
tried  carefully  and  cautiously  to  hit  some  joint 
in  the  armor.  But  even  he,  though  free  in  his 
confidence,  seemed  to  make  no  advance,  when, 
all  at  once,  the  advance  came  bodily  and  volun- 
tarily from  Bushnell  hiniself.  Said  he  to  Durant, 
4 1  must  get  out  of  this  woe.  Here  am  I  what  I 
am,  and  these  young  men  hanging  to  me  in 
their  indifference  amidst  this  universal  earnest- 
ness on  every  side.'  And  we  were  told  what  he 
said  he  was  going  to  do,  —  to  invite  these  young 
men  to  meet  him  some  evening  in  the  week,  when 
he  would  lay  bare  his  position  and  their  own,  and 
declare  to  them  his  determination  and  the  deci- 
sion they  ought  with  him  to  make  for  themselves. 
Perhaps  there  never  was  pride  more  lofty  laid 
down  voluntarily  in  the  dust  than  when  Horace 
Bushnell  thus  met  those  worshipers  of  his.  The 
result  was  overwhelming. 

1  The  founder  and  president  of  the  first  college  in  California. 


COLLEGE  AND  PROFESSIONAL  STUDIES    25 

"  When,  then,  he  came  at  once  into  the  confi- 
dences of  the  daily  meeting  of  his  fellow  tutors,  was 
it  not  Paul  that  was  called  Saul,  and  was  there  ever 
such  a  little  child  as  he  was?  On  one  occasion 
he  came  in,  and,  throwing  himself  with  an  air  of 
abandonment  into  a  seat,  and  thrusting  both  hands 
through  his  black,  bushy  hah',  cried  out  desper- 
ately, yet  half  laughingly,  '  O  men !  what  shall  I 
do  with  these  arrant  doubts  I  have  been  nursing 
for  years  ?  When  the  preacher  touches  the  Trin- 
ity and  when  logic  shatters  it  all  to  pieces,  I  am 
all  at  the  four  winds.  But  I  am  glad  I  have  a 
heart  as  well  as  a  head.  My  heart  wants  the  Fa- 
ther ;  my  heart  wants  the  Son ;  my  heart  wants 
the  Holy  Ghost  —  and  one  just  as  much  as  the 
other.  My  heart  says  the  Bible  has  a  Trinity  for 
me,  and  I  mean  to  hold  by  my  heart.  I  am  glad 
a  man  can  do  it  when  there  is  no  other  mooring, 
and  so  I  answer  my  own  question,  What  shall 
I  do  ?     But  that  is  all  I  can  do  yet.' '; 

The  most  interesting  feature  of  this  experience 
is  that  it  turned  on  his  sense  of  responsibility  for 
others.  He  seemed  to  have  no  anxiety  for  him- 
self, nor  did  he  find  his  doubts  an  unendurable 
burden,  though  he  was  sorely  perplexed  by  them. 
But  the  sight  of  his  pupils  awaiting  his  action  in 
a  matter  of  supreme  importance  overwhelmed  him. 
Here  was  conscience  at  its  highest,  touching  self- 
sacrifice  if  not  one  with  it.  All  along  his  early 
life  we  find  these  forecasts  of  his  later  thought. 
In  his  solicitude  for  his  pupils  we  have  the  germ 


26  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

of  "  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice,"  and  in  his  outburst 
of  perplexity  over  the  Trinity  we  find  the  discrim- 
inating principle  that  runs  through  all  his  treat- 
ment of  that  subject.  In  the  main  lines  of  his 
thought  he  was  not  an  impulsive  thinker  taking 
up  great  subjects  because  he  found  them  in  the 
air  or  in  books.  All  his  contentions  had  root,  not 
so  much  in  his  thought,  as  in  his  nature.  He 
reviewed  and  recast  his  superficial  opinions,  but  he 
never  let  go  of  the  general  principles  that  underlie 
his  works.  Bushnell  always  regarded  this  experi- 
ence as  the  most  important  crisis  in  his  life.  Later 
on  one  equally  great  came  in  his  thought,  but  it 
in  no  way  lessened  the  significance  of  the  first.  It 
was  strikingly  like  that  through  which  Frederick 
W.  Robertson  passed  in  the  Tyrol  when  tossed  by 
doubt  over  the  same  questions.1  Each  was  re- 
duced to  the  almost  sole  belief  that  "  it  must  be 
right  to  do  right ;  "  each  clung  to  the  "  grand,  sim- 
ple landmarks  of  morality,"  and  so  at  last  found 
his  way  into  a  fuller  faith.  Bushnell  gives  an 
account  of  his  experience  at  this  time  in  a  sermon 
on  "  The  Dissolving  of  Doubts,"  preached  in  the 
chapel  of  Yale  College. 

This  sermon  —  one  of  his  ablest  and  most  self- 
revealing —  closes  with  six  points,  which  indicate 
the  path  along  which  he  traveled  at  this  time  and 
for  years  after :  — 

"  Be  never  afraid  of  doubt. 

"  Be  afraid  of  all  sophistries,  and  tricks,  and 
strifes  of  disingenuous  argument. 

1  Life  ofF.  W.  Robertson,  vol.  i.  p.  109. 


COLLEGE  AND  PROFESSIONAL  STUDIES    27 

"  Have  it  a  fixed  principle,  also,  that  getting  into 
any  scornful  way  is  fatal. 

"  Never  settle  upon  anything  as  true  because  it  is 
safer  to  hold  it  than  not. 

"  Have  it  as  a  law  never  to  put  force  on  the  mind, 
or  try  to  make  it  believe. 

"  Never  be  in  a  hurry  to  believe ;  never  try  to 
conjure  doubts  against  time." 

His  reconversion,  if  such  it  should  be  called,  was 
a  conversion  to  duty  rather  than  to  faith,  but  he 
made  the  discovery  that  faith  could  wait,  but  duty 
could  not.  Through  this  simple  principle  he 
found  his  way  not  only  into  a  full  faith,  but  into 
the  conception  of  Christianity  as  a  life,  —  Christ 
himself  rather  than  beliefs  about  Christ,  a  dis- 
tinction which,  if  not  then  seen  in  its  fullness,  is 
implied  in  all  his  writings. 

His  law  studies  were  completed,  but  he  turned 
to  the  ministry.  In  the  sunnner  of  1831  he  took 
leave  of  his  pupils  in  an  address  full  of  practical 
wisdom,  and  indicating  that  his  own  habits  of 
thought  were  fully  formed.  He  left  with  them 
"  two  rules  which  ought  to  govern  every  man." 
The  first  is,  "  Be  perfectly  honest  in  forming  all 
your  opinions  and  principles  of  action."  The 
other  is,  "  Never  to  swerve  in  conduct  from  your 
honest  convictions."  He  clinched  this  advice  by 
saying,  "  If  between  them  both  you  go  over  Ni- 
agara, go ! " 

This  strenuous  advice  was  probably  borrowed 
from  Dr.   Taylor,  who  was  soon  to  become  his 


28  HORACE   BUSIINELL 

instructor  in  theology ;  it  was  often  heard  in  his 
lecture-room,  and  it  well  represented  the  spirit  of 
that  stout  champion  of  the  "  new  divinity."  There 
are  few  pupils  of  this  great  teacher  who  would 
not  confess  their  deep  indebtedness  to  him,  but 
the  emphasis  of  their  gratitude  woidd  fall  on  the 
courage  and  honesty  and  thorough  nobility  of  the 
man  liimself .  He  was  a  great  teacher  because  he 
was  a  great  man  ;  and  he  was  the  teacher  fitted  for 
the  time  because  what  was  needed  was  not  more  a 
new  theology  than  courage  and  an  independent 
habit  of  thought. 

These  qualities  were  abundantly  nurtured  in 
the  lecture-room  of  Dr.  Taylor,  and  there  was 
also  cherished  a  breadth  of  view  and  a  charity  not 
common  in  those  days.  As  a  teacher  he  was  far 
ahead  of  his  age.  In  no  other  school  of  theology 
were  lectures  closed  with  the  uniform  remark, 
"  Now,  young  gentlemen,  I  will  hear  you."  It 
was  often  the  preface  to  another  session  of  an 
hour  or  even  two,  in  which  teacher  and  pupils 
were  man  to  man  with  all  the  give  and  take  of 
close  argument,  or  in  the  closer  contact  of  a  noble 
and  generous  nature  pouring  himself  out  upon 
sympathetic  and  responsive  pupils.  In  argument 
he  always  won,  though  sometimes  leaving  them 
unconvinced,  but  in  the  spirit  he  infused  into  them 
his  victory  was  total  and  permanent. 

Buslmell  fell  into  the  spirit  of  the  lecture-room  ; 
it  fed  and  fortified  his  sincerity  and  courage  and 
independence  of  thought.     But  when  it  came  to 


COLLEGE   AND   PROFESSIONAL   STUDIES    29 

the  thought  itself,  he  parted  company  with  his 
teacher,  and  went  his  own  way.  He  had  begun 
to  read  Coleridge's  "  Aids  to  Reflection."  The 
theology  of  the  day  failed  to  satisfy  him,  and  he 
had  already  learned  to  look  for  truth  from  certain 
sources  and  by  certain  methods  that  had  small  re- 
cognition by  his  teacher.  As  the  subject  will  come 
up  in  the  next  chapter,  we  will  only  say  that  his 
theological  studies  in  New  Haven  chiefly  served  to 
furnish  a  background  against  which  all  his  thought 
and  work  in  after  years  stand  out  in  vivid  contrast. 
It  was  not  a  contrast  between  the  two  men  ;  it  was 
between  two  ways  of  reasoning  and  two  methods  of 
discovering  truth ;  a  contrast  between  an  old  world 
drawing  to  a  close  and  a  new  world  coming  on. 

When  examining  for  a  license  to  preach,  he  read 
a  thesis  on  the  methods  of  natural  and  moral 
philosophy,  in  which  he  contended  that  syste- 
matized knowledge  is  possible  in  the  former  "  be- 
cause nature  is  a  system  in  which  everything 
fulfills  its  end,"  but  impossible  in  the  latter 
"  because  a  great  share  of  the  acts  of  men  are  in 
contradiction  of  those  properties  of  their  constitu- 
tion which  fit  them  for  the  end  proposed  in  the  end 
of  their  existence.  "  Here  we  find  the  germ  of 
"  Nature  and  the  Supernatural,"  which  appeared 
thirty  years  later. 


CHAPTEE  III 
THE  THEOLOGICAL  SITUATION 


"  Tertullian  was  a  Sophist  in  the  good  and  had  sense  of  the 
term.  He  was  in  his  element  in  Aristotelian  and  Stoic  dialectics ; 
in  his  syllogisms  he  is  a  philosophizing-  advocate.  But  in  this 
also  he  was  the  pioneer  of  his  Church,  whose  theologians  have 
always  reasoned  more  than  they  have  philosophized.  The  man- 
ner in  which  he  rings  the  changes  on  auctoritas  and  ratio,  or  com- 
bines them,  and  spins  lines  of  thought  out  of  them ;  the  formal 
treatment  of  problems,  meant  to  supply  the  place  of  one  dealing 
with  the  matter,  until  it  ultimately  loses  sight  of  aim  and  ob- 
ject, and  falls  a  prey  to  the  delusion  that  the  certainty  of  the 
conclusion  guarantees  the  certainty  of  the  premises  —  this  whole 
method,  only  too  well  known  from  mediaeval  Scholasticism,  had 
its  originator  in  Tertullian.  In  the  classical  period  of  eastern 
theology  men  did  not  stop  at  auctoritas  and  ratio ;  they  sought 
to  reach  the  inner  convincing  phases  of  authority,  and  under- 
stood by  ratio  the  reason  determined  by  the  conception  of  the 
matter  in  question."  —  Ha  knack,  History  of  Dogma,  vol.  v. 
p.  17. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   THEOLOGICAL   SITUATION 

In  the  year  1833  Bushnell  was  ordained  pastor 
of  the  North  Church  in  Hartford.  He  had  lin- 
gered in  New  Haven  during  the  autumn  and 
winter  until  February,  when  he  received  an  invi- 
tation to  preach  for  a  time  with  a  view  to  settle- 
ment. His  introduction  to  the  church  is  graphi- 
cally described  in  a  sermon  preached  on  the 
twentieth  anniversary  of  his  installation,  which 
shows  how  he  was  plunged  at  once  into  the  sea  of 
New  England  theology,  that  never  was  at  rest, 
and  never  more  turbulent  than  at  that  time. 

"  I  arrived  here  late  in  the  afternoon  in  a  furious 
snowstorm,  after  floundering  all  day  in  the  heavy 
drifts  the  storm  was  raising  among  the  hills  between 
here  and  Litchfield.  I  went,  as  invited,  directly  to 
the  house  of  the  chairman  of  the  committee  ;  but  I 
had  scarcely  warmed  me,  and  not  at  all  relieved  the 
hunger  of  my  fast,  when  he  came  in  and  told  me 
that  arrangements  had  been  made  for  me  with  one 
of  the  fathers  of  the  church,  and  immediately  sent 
me  off  with  my  baggage  to  the  quarters  assigned. 
Of  course,  I  had  no  complaint  to  make,  though 
the  fire  seemed  very  inviting  and  the  house  attrac- 
tive ;  but  when  I  came  to  know  the  hospitality  of 


34  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

my  friend,  as  I  had  abundant  opportunity  of  know- 
ing it  afterwards,  it  became  somewhat  of  a  mys- 
tery to  me  that  I  should  have  been  dispatched  in 
this  rather  summary  fashion.  But  it  came  out, 
three  or  four  years  after,  that,  as  there  were  two 
parties  strongly  marked  in  the  church,  an  Old  and 
a  New  School  party,  as  related  to  the  New  Haven 
controversy,  the  committee  had  made  up  their 
mind,  very  prudently,  that  it  would  not  do  for  me 
to  stay  even  for  an  hour  with  the  New  School 
brother  of  the  committee  ;  and  for  this  reason 
they  had  made  interest  with  the  elder  brother 
referred  to,  because  he  was  a  man  of  the  school 
simply  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  here,  under  cover 
of  his  good  hospitality,  I  was  put  in  hospital  and 
kept  away  from  the  infected  districts  preparatory 
to  a  settlement  in  the  North  Church  of  Hartford. 
I  mention  this  fact  to  show  the  very  delicate  con- 
dition prepared  for  the  young  pastor,  who  is  to  be 
thus  daintily  inserted  between  an  acid  and  an 
alkali,  having  it  for  his  task  both  to  keep  them 
apart  and  to  save  himself  from  being  bitten  of  one 
or  devoured  by  the  other." 

Bushnell  so  well  fulfilled  the  mediating  part  in 
this  clever  scheme  that  he  avoided  criticism  from 
either  side,  and  after  preaching  six  Simdays, 
was  unanimously  called  to  the  pastorate.  His 
ordination  took  place  on  the  22d  of  May,  no  diffi- 
culties having  been  encountered  in  the  prelim- 
inary examination.  Evidently  the  force  and  char- 
acter of  the  man  conquered  a  critical  situation. 


THE   THEOLOGICAL   SITUATION  35 

On  the  13th  of  September,  1833,  he  was  mar- 
ried in  New  Haven  to  Mary  Apthorp,  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  John  Davenport,  the  first  minister  of 
New  Haven.  By  nature  and  by  culture  she  was  well 
fitted  to  share  the  life  of  the  young  pastor.  Her 
high  womanly  qualities  tempered  his  somewhat 
undisciplined  force,  and  her  spirituality  furnished 
the  atmosphere  by  which  his  own  was  steadily  fed. 
He  is  never  to  be  regarded  apart  from  the  in- 
fluence that  constantly  flowed  in  upon  him  from  her 
strong  personality.  They  spent  a  few  weeks  in 
New  Preston,  and  then  entered  upon  their  united 
labors  in  Hartford. 

Bushnell's  theological  career  began  so  early  in 
his  ministry  that  it  is  impossible  to  understand  it 
without  taking  a  view,  though  necessarily  a  par- 
tial one,  of  the  theological  situation.  In  general 
terms  it  might  be  described  not  as  a  decadent  but 
as  a  critical  period  in  the  life  of  the  churches. 
There  was  intense  activity,  but  it  was  largely  the 
activity  of  antagonism.  A  long  process  had 
reached  a  point  where  it  could  go  no  further. 
The  New  England  theology  had  worn  itself  out 
by  the  friction  of  its  own  conflicting  elements. 
Edwards  was  no  longer  a  name  to  conjure  with. 
The  main  current  of  his  influence  had  gone  to  feed 
an  intellectual  idealism,  and  his  specific  theology 
had  been  "  improved  "  under  so  many  hands  and 
into  so  many  differing  forms  that  it  could  hardly 
be  recognized.  The  general  criticism  to  be  made 
upon    Edwards'   work,  as   a   whole,    is   that    his 


36  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

avowed  purpose  was  the  overthrow  of  an  alleged 
heresy.  He  thus  incurred  the  inevitable  weak- 
ness of  the  negative  method.  He  assumed  that 
if  Arminianism  were  overthrown,  Calvinism  would 
hold  the  ground.  The  mistake  was  a  fatal  one, 
because  it  substituted  controversy  for  investiga- 
tion. The  search  was  not  for  the  truth,  but  for 
the  error  of  the  enemy,  who  in  almost  any  theo- 
logical controversy  holds  enough  truth  to  embar- 
rass the  other  side.  As  to  the  intellectual  great- 
ness of  Edwards  there  can  be  as  little  doubt  as  of 
his  exalted  piety,  but  his  life-long  contention  was 
for  a  system  that  subdued  the  nobler  elements  of 
his  nature  in  order  to  make  room  for  the  logic  of 
his  system.  One  cannot  read  the  Enfield  sermon 
without  feeling  its  moral  degradation,  however 
outweighed  by  the  end  in  view  and  the  nobility  of 
that  end.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  doctrine 
of  preterition  ;  it  was  simply  inhuman.  It  was  a 
contention  that  grew  weaker  under  every  effort 
made  to  uphold  it ;  that  only  darkened  when  it 
sought  to  clarify ;  that  enchanted  great  minds  into 
following  only  to  lead  them  into  mutual  antago- 
nisms and  finally  to  destruction  at  each  other's 
hands.  This  is  one  of  those  pages  in  church 
history  that  would  puzzle,  if  its  frequency  did  not 
indicate  that  it  is  along  such  paths  the  church 
pursues  its  way,  and  society  itself  unfolds.  But 
no  less  does  it  show  that  a  system  wThich  springs 
out  of  and  reflects  a  certain  phase  of  society 
emerges  from  that  phase  and  enters  upon  another. 


THE  THEOLOGICAL   SITUATION  37 

Edwards  was  not  contending  against  the  self- 
determining  power  of  the  will,  but  against  an 
impersonal  force  that  had  begun  to  press  upon  the 
minds  of  men  ;  namely,  modern  thought.  His  fol- 
lowers were  in  one  sense  not  followers.  They 
stood  by  his  system  of  slightly  modified  Calvin- 
ism as  a  whole,  but  shrank  from  some  of  its  appli- 
cations  and  inferences ;  and  they  also  criticised  his 
metaphysics.  He  was  great  enough  to  throw  off 
any  number  of  satellites  as  he  revolved  in  his 
vast  orbit,  but  all  of  them  stayed  within  the  sys- 
tem. Bellamy,  Hopkins,  Emmons,  the  "younger 
Edwards,  Dwight,  Taylor,  —  all  agreed  upon  Ar- 
minianism  as  a  common  enemy,  and  strove  to  mend 
what  they  conceived  to  be  defects  in  their  great 
protagonist.  Their  writings  are  a  strange  mixture 
of  dignity  and  triviality,  of  truism  and  absurdity ; 
often  they  are  on  the  threshold  of  the  greatest 
truths,  and  then  we  find  them  wandering  in  barren 
wastes  of  mere  speculation.  Metaphysical  concep- 
tions, as  in  the  early  Greek  Church,  came  to  occupy 
relatively  the  same  place  which  conceptions  of 
natural  science  occupy  at  the  present  day ;  that  is, 
as  being  the  truth  of  God  instead  of  one  of  the 
ways  of  reaching  it.1 

Bellamy  contended  that  the  world  is  more  holy 
and  happy  than  if  sin  and  misery  had  never  en- 
tered it. 

This  doctrine  was  popularly  known  as  "Sin  the 

1  See  Hatch's  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  on  the  Christian  Church, 
p.  13. 


38  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

necessary  means  to  the  greatest  good."  The  New 
England  divines  struck  an  undoubted  truth  in 
this  disposition  of  moral  evil,  but  they  did  not 
know  what  to  do  with  it.  What  they  saw  was  a 
universal  and  probably  fundamental  law  ;  namely, 
evil,  or  seeming  evil,  the  condition  of  all  progress. 
They  did  not  see  the  universality  of  the  law,  and 
so  shut  it  up  to  theology,  and  treated  it  dialecti- 
cally,  bringing  up  in  confusion,  if  not  blasphemy. 
Dr.  Taylor,  in  his  zeal  to  save  the  character  of 
God,  said  that  sin  was  incidental,  not  necessary, 
and  thus  saved  himself  from  saying  that  God  was 
the  author  of  sin.  Hopkins  was  quite  as  near 
right  as  Taylor ;  both  had  laid  hold  of  the  skirts 
of  a  great  truth,  but  knew  little  of  its  reach  and 
place  in  the  divine  economy.  It  was  a  subject 
which  Christ  waived ;  but  the  New  England  theo- 
logians waived  nothing. 

Bellamy  was  followed  by  Hopkins,  who  modified 
certain  features  of  the  system,  such  as  imputation 
and  a  covenant  with  Adam,  and  made  them  less 
obnoxious.  Starting  with  Edwards'  unimpeach- 
able definition  of  virtue  as  "love  of  being  in 
general,"  Hopkins  draws  out,  by  a  purely  logical 
process,  —  as  faultless  as  it  is  unconvincing,  —  the 
doctrine  of  disinterested  benevolence,  or,  when 
practically  stated,  willingness  to  become  a  cast- 
away, if  the  glory  of  God  should  require  it.  It  was 
held  not  only  as  a  speculative  doctrine,  but  as  a 
test  of  character.1 

1  The  last  appearance  of  the  doctrine  in  public  was  at  aCongre- 


THE  THEOLOGICAL  SITUATION  39 

The  conception  indicates  a  kind  of  sacred  chiv- 
alry, but  so  far  as  it  had  acceptance,  it  worked 
immeasurable  evil,  —  misery  in  those  who  believed 
it,  and  hypocrisy  in  those  who  did  not  formally 
assent  to  it.  Emmons  held  that  God,  being  Uni- 
versal Cause,  is  the  cause  of  sin,  and  that  the  soul 
is  a  series  of  exercises,  —  a  marvelous  lapse  into 
a  form  of  pantheism.  The  younger  Edwards  stood 
stoutly  by  Divine  Sovereignty,  but  made  room  for 
the  Grotian  theory  of  the  Atonement,  and  corrected 
his  father's  treatment  of  the  Will. 

President  Dwight  disagreed  with  these  leaders 
in  theology,  not  incorrectly  finding  in  them  traces 
of  pantheism.  He  asserted  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  defined  sin  as  selfishness,  rejected  imputation, 
and  advocated  the  use  of  means,  which  had  been 
held  to  be  wicked.  All  these  theologians  agreed 
and  disagreed  with  Edwards  and  with  each  other, 
but  all  were  fairly  good  Calvinists.  They  called 
their  disagreements  "  improvements,"  but  while 
they  were  thus  defending  the  theology  of  their 
great  leader  with  a  noble  fidelity,  they  did  not 
see  that  they  were  paving  the  way  for  Arminian- 
ism,  to  the  extermination  of  which  he  devoted  his 
life.     Every  step  had  been  a  losing  process,  but 

gational  Council  called  to  ordain  the  late  Dr.  John  Lord,  well 
known  as  a  lecturer  and  writer  on  history.  In  the  course  of  the 
examination,  which  had  heen  somewhat  harassing,  a  surviving1 
Hopkinsian  asked  the  candidate,  —  using  the  rough  and  popular 
form  of  the  question,  —  if  he  was  willing  to  be  damned  for  the 
glory  of  God.  The  reply  was  that  personally  he  was  not,  but 
he  was  willing  the  Council  should  be. 


40  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

not  until  Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor  made  his  unqualified 
assertion  of  the  self-determining  power  of  the  will 
did  it  become  clearly  apparent  that  the  Arniin- 
ian  postulate  had  found  its  way  into  the  citadel  of 
Calvinism.  Dr.  Taylor  resented  this  conclusion, 
hut  whether  true  or  not,  it  was  near  enough  to  the 
truth  to  become  the  occasion  of  as  intense  a  theo- 
logical war  as  the  nineteenth  century  is  capable 
of.  It  was  into  such  a  world  as  this  that  Bushnell 
entered  when  he  began  his  studies  in  theology. 

The  careers  of  Taylor  and  Bushnell  ran  side  by 
side  for  many  years.  The  relation  between  them 
was  close,  but  it  was  not  sympathetic.  Bushnell 
entered  the  Divinity  School  at  New  Haven  in  1831. 
Three  years  before,  Dr.  Taylor  had  preached  a 
concio  ad  clerum,  in  which  he  made  clear  his  views 
on  the  point  to  which  we  have  just  alluded.  It 
called  out  a  criticism  that  led  to  the  widest  breach 
within  orthodox  lines  that  New  England  had  ever 
experienced.  It  divided  churches,  and  led  to  the 
creation  of  a  theological  seminary,  whose  chief  vo- 
cation for  years  was  the  defense  of  previous  views 
of  the  will  and  cognate  doctrines,  as  against  the 
views  of  Dr.  Taylor,  which  it  stigmatized  as  Armin- 
ian.  Dr.  Taylor  stood  his  ground  with  splendid 
courage,  quite  ready  to  "  go  over  Niagara,"  if  his 
logic  led  in  that  direction  ;  for  he,  too,  defended  the 
system  by  logic,  and  was  the  keenest  dialectician 
since  Edwards,  over  whom  he  claimed  superiority 
by  asserting  that  "  a  dwarf  standing  on  a  giant's 
shoulders  can  see  further   than  the   giant."     He 


THE   THEOLOGICAL   SITUATION  41 

was  surrounded  by  men  of  ability,  and  his  pupils 
in  class-room  and  pulpit  sustained  him  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  personal  admiration  and  doctrinal 
sympathy.  There  are  still  living  some  who  respond 
to  one  if  not  to  the  other.  It  was  the  noblest 
period  in  the  history  of  New  England  theology. 
Something  of  the  spirit  of  the  new-found  freedom 
pervaded  the  region,  and  the  sense  of  accountabil- 
ity that  sprang  from  it  gave  an  impulse  to  Chris- 
tian living  that  is  not  yet  spent. 

It  might  have  been  expected  that  Bushnell  would 
fall  into  this  company  and  march  with  it.  There 
was  much  in  Dr.  Taylor  to  command  his  admi- 
ration. His  courage  was  as  fine  as  that  which 
Bushnell  afterward  displayed,  though  drawn  from 
different  sources.  Each  was  brave  by  nature,  but 
Taylor  rested  with  absolute  repose  on  his  logic, 
while  Bushnell  fell  back,  with  like  confidence,  on 
his  insight  and  experience.  Dr.  Taylor's  position 
also  as  an  independent  thinker  and  a  progressive 
theologian,  who  had  made  a  positive  advance  to- 
ward rational  and  practical  views  of  religion,  must 
have  won  the  respect  of  the  pupil.  Both  were 
men  of  a  generous  and  chivalric  disposition,  and 
of  absolute  honesty  and  sincerity.  But  with  all 
these  grounds  for  sympathy,  the  teacher  failed 
from  the  first  to  get  any  hold  upon  the  pupil,  or 
even  to  interest  him.  A  partial  explanation  is 
to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  path  by  which 
Bushnell  had  reached  his  present  position  was  not 
along  the  highway  of  Calvinism.     He  had  sunk 


42  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

deep  in  the  slough  of  skepticism,  and  when  he 
emerged,  he  did  not  return  to  that  which  plunged 
him  into  it.  He  had  been  delivered  by  his  heart, 
and  henceforth  he  was  to  be  guided  by  his  heart, 
and  not  by  the  logic  that  filled  the  air  about  him. 
From  the  first  he  had  been  an  alien  to  the  school 
of  Edwards.  He  was  not  born  under  its  star,  nor 
did  he  serve  in  its  house  except  as  by  chance.  Its 
method  was  one  for  which  he  had  no  aptitude  and 
felt  little  interest,  —  a  steady  dialectic  play  upon 
a  theology  defended,  modified,  taught,  preached, 
and  applied  by  formal  logic.  By  logic  is  not  meant 
that  action  of  the  mind  which  is  the  reasoning 
voice  of  the  whole  nature,  and  that  agreement  of 
thought  with  facts  which  insures  consistency ;  but 
rather  that  use  of  definition  and  syllogism  upon 
infinite  subjects  which  enforces  assent,  —  such  as 
led  Professor  Jowett  to  say  that  "it  is  not  a  sci- 
ence, nor  an  art,  but  a  dodge."  Dr.  Taylor  did 
not  fall  short  of  his  predecessors  in  dialectics,  and 
was  as  stout  a  logician  as  any  of  them.  Some 
of  his  later  students  remember  his  naive  account 
of  a  theological  bout  with  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher, 
in  which  he  (Taylor)  contended  that  a  single  sin, 
however  small,  deserved  everlasting  punishment.1 

1  Dr.  Taylor's  contention  might  seeni  to  have  the  justification  of 
Socrates'  remark,  "  God  may  forgive  sin,  but  I  do  not  see  how  He 
can;  "  but  the  remark  of  the  Greek  was  based  on  the  course  of 
nature  in  its  outward  processes,  while  Dr.  Taylor's  was  based  on 
an  implied  limitation  of  the  power  of  God  under  his  own  moral 
government.  Socrates  felt  the  possibility  of  the  divine  tran- 
scendence ;  Taylor  believed  it,  but  made  little  allowance  for  it ; 
both  wandered  in  "  the  twilight  of  the  gods." 


THE  THEOLOGICAL  SITUATION  43 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  a  teacher  who  should  even 
raise  such  a  question  could  have  little  influence 
over  such  a  man  as  Bushnell.  They  were  not 
within  hailing  distance,  hardly  on  the  same  side  of 
the  planet.  Hence,  as  often  has  happened  in 
New  England,  the  theological  teacher  and  his 
brightest  pupil  parted  company.  Taylor  could 
only  see  in  Bushnell  one  who  was  "  always  on 
t'  other  side ;  "  though  he  sufficiently  felt  the  force 
of  his  book,  —  "  God  in  Christ,"  —  to  rewrite 
at  great  length  his  lectures  on  the  Trinity,  — 
perhaps  the  most  carefully  wrought  out  and  the 
least  valuable  of  his  works.  He  could  not  under- 
stand Bushnell,  who  not  only  understood  him,  but 
so  reacted  from  his  teachings  that  he  began  to 
think  on  absolutely  opposite  lines.  The  reaction 
drove  him  into  the  region  where  his  chief  work 
was  done.  In  his  thesis  at  graduation  we  have 
the  germ  and  not  a  little  of  the  form  of  "  Nature 
and  the  Supernatural ; "  and  in  another  essay, 
written  at  about  the  same  time,  we  find  the  outline 
of  his  theory  of  language.  These  essays  are  in- 
teresting as  showing  how  fundamental  was  his 
dissent  from  the  methods  of  his  teacher,  and  also 
as  pointing  the  way  he  was  going.  They  are  also 
prophetic  of  his  own  method,  —  a  careful  adjust- 
ment between  destruction  and  construction,  with 
strong  emphasis  on  the  latter.  It  may  be  said  at 
the  outset  that  Bushnell  took  nothing  away  from 
theology  without  restoring  fourfold ;  he  was  al- 
ways and  in  all  ways  a  builder.     But  while  he 


44  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

was  out  of  sympathy  with  his  teacher,  he  was  more 
indebted  than  he  knew.  They  never  in  after 
years  actually  crossed  swords  in  debate,  but  each 
often  had  the  other  in  mind  in  many  a  pungent 
page  and  pointed  paragraph.  If  either  was  lack- 
ing in  respect  for  the  other,  it  was  not  Bushnell. 
Dr.  Taylor  could  not  understand  this  strange 
fledgeling  of  his  theological  nest,  and  despised  its 
vagrant  ways,  but  the  pupil  did  not  forget  the  few 
nourishing  crumbs  he  had  received  from  his  mas- 
ter's hands.  It  was  the  familiar  story,  —  the  old 
intolerant  of  the  new,  and  the  new  out-thinking 
the  old. 

Several  years  later  (1844)  a  singular  contro- 
versy was  going  on,  or  rather  raging,  in  New  Eng- 
land over  a  question  involving  the  anti-slavery 
movement.  It  was  made  up  of  practical  politics 
and  theological  subtleties  of  a  Jesuitical  hue,  as 
that  the  end  justifies  the  means,  —  a  variation 
of  the  Hopkinsian  doctrine  that  sin  may  be  the 
necessary  means  of  the  greatest  good.  The  ques- 
tion at  first  was  whether  it  is  right  to  vote  for 
either  a  duelist  or  an  oppressor  of  the  poor  for 
the  presidency.  It  was  aimed  at  a  Southern  can- 
didate, who  was  both  a  duelist  and  a  slaveholder. 
Under  Dr.  Taylor's  hand  the  question  was  resolved 
into  this  form :  "If  two  devils  are  candidates  for 
the  office,  and  the  election  of  one  is  inevitable,  is 
it  not  one's  duty  to  vote  for  the  least,  in  order  to 
secure  the  greater  good  ?  "  He  contended  that  if 
this  is  not  done,  one  becomes  responsible  for  the 


THE  THEOLOGICAL  SITUATION  45 

evil  wrought  by  the  greater  devil.  Bushnell  con- 
troverted this  position  in  "  The  Christian  Free- 
man "  (December  12, 1844),  in  an  article  of  four 
columns,  lifting  the  question  out  of  the  region  of 
temporary  expediency  into  that  of  morals.  His 
main  point  was  that  to  vote  for  bad  men  under 
the  stress  of  such  a  principle  would  be  to  organ- 
ize immorality  into  the  life  of  the  nation,  and 
so  fail  of  the  greater  good.  The  question  was  a 
weak  one,  but  full  of  mischief.  Bushnell's  treat- 
ment of  it  was  masterly.  It  is  not  contained  in 
his  collected  writings,  but  nothing  that  he  said  on 
political  subjects  was  more  timely  and  effective. 
Taking  a  petty  question  for  a  text,  he  wrote  a 
paper  on  the  nature  and  authority  of  civil  gov- 
ernment. The  point  he  made  underlay  the  anti- 
slavery  movement,  the  resistance  to  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  the  outcry  of  the  North  against  Web- 
ster's 7th  of  March  speech,  and  entered  into  the 
thought  that  issued  in  the  Free  Soil  party.  He 
taught  the  people  that  the  only  way  to  secure 
the  greatest  good  was  along  the  path  of  absolute 
righteousness,  and  not  in  vain  attempts  to  measure 
consequences.  Dr.  Taylor  maintained  that  conse- 
quences create  duty,  a  principle  that  determined 
political  action  in  the  country  for  twenty  years. 
Bushnell  contended  that  righteousness  secures  the 
only  consequences  worth  having.  It  was  this  prin- 
ciple that  carried  the  nation  through  the  war  and 
brought  slavery  to  an  end. 

We  have  dwelt  thus  at  length  on  the  seminary 


46  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

life  of  Buslmell  because  it  shows  how  radically  he 
broke  away  from  the  prevailing  habit  of  thought, 
and  also  how  early  he  outlined  the  chief  features 
of  his  later  studies.  He  quickly  discovered  and 
adopted  as  a  ruling  idea  the  fact  that  moral  action 
cannot  be  determined  by  a  hard  and  fast  logic. 
He  also  discovered  for  himself  —  and  it  was  his 
first  discovery  —  the  truth  of  Melanchthon  and 
Schleiermacher,  that  "  the  heart  makes  the  theo- 
logian." It  was  from  such  a  world  as  this,  where 
he  had  heard  so  much  he  did  not  believe  and  so 
little  he  did,  that  he  entered  the  ministry.  He 
had  the  advantages  of  a  thorough  education  in  col- 
lege and  two  professional  schools ;  a  year  of  very 
close  contact  with  the  world  as  an  editor  in  New 
York ;  an  illuminating  experience  as  a  teacher 
of  young  men,  and  above  all  the  memory  and  in- 
wrought influence  of  a  home  in  which  the  Chris- 
tian nurture  was  like  that  which  he  afterward 
described.  To  this  should  be  added  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  Coleridge's  "  Aids  to  Reflection." 
It  may  almost  be  said  that  it  is  to  this  book  we 
are  indebted  for  Buslmell.  He  began  to  read  it 
in  college,  but  it  seemed  "  foggy  and  unintelligi- 
ble," and  was  put  aside  for  "  a  long  time."  He 
took  it  up  later  with  this  result :  — 

"  For  a  whole  half  year  I  was  buried  under 
his  '  Aids  to  Reflection,'  and  trying  vainly  to  look 
up  through.  I  was  quite  sure  that  I  saw  a  star 
glimmer,  but  I  coidd  not  quite  see  the  stars.  My 
habit  was  only  landscape  before ;  but  now  I  saw 


THE    THEOLOGICAL   SITUATION  47 

enough  to  convince  me  of  a  whole  other  world 
somewhere  overhead,  a  range  of  realities  in  higher 
tier,  that  I  must  climb  after,  and,  if  possible,  ap- 
prehend." 

This  book  stood  by  him  to  the  end,  and  in  old 
age  he  confessed  greater  indebtedness  to  it  than 
to  any  other  book  save  the  Bible.  We  have  only 
to  quote  one  passage,  taken  almost  at  random,  to 
show  what  a  fountain  of  light  was  unsealed  to  him 
in  this  volume.  It  was  an  epoch-making  book, 
but  Bushnell  was  one  of  the  first  to  turn  its  light 
upon  the  theology  of  New  England.1 

"  Too  soon  did  the  Doctors  of  the  Church  for- 
get that  the  heart,  the  moral  nature,  was  the  be- 
ginning and  the  end ;  and  that  truth,  knowledge, 
and  insight  were  comprehended  in  its  expansion. 
This  was  the  true  and  first  apostasy,  —  when  in 
council  and  synod  the  Divine  Humanities  of  the 
Gospel  gave  way  to  speculative  Systems,  and  Re- 
ligion became  a  Science  of  Shadows  under  the 
name  of  Theology,  or  at  best  a  bare  Skeleton  of 
Truth,  without  life  or  interest,  alike  inaccessible 
and  unintelligible  to  the  majority  of  Christians. 
For  these,  therefore,  there  remained  only  rites  and 
ceremonies  and  spectacles,  shows  and  semblances. 
Thus  among  the  learned  the  Substance  of  things 

1  It  'would  be  interesting1  to  ascertain,  were  it  possible,  if  the 
lines  on  the  original  title-page,  1825,  struck  fire  on  a  nature  that 
■was  all  ready  to  be  set  aflame  :  — 

"  This  makes,  that  whatsoever  here  befalls, 
You  in  the  region  of  yourself  remain, 
Neighb'ring  on  Heaven  :  and  that  no  foreign  land." 

Danikl. 


48  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

hoped  for  passed  off  into  Notions;  and  for  the 
unlearned  the  Surfaces  of  things  became  Sub- 
stance. The  Christian  world  was  for  centuries 
divided  into  the  Many  that  did  not  think  at  all, 
and  the  Few  who  did  nothing  but  think,  —  both 
alike  unreflecting,  the  one  from  defect  of  the  act, 
the  other  from  the  absence  of  an  object." 


CHAPTER  IV 
MINISTRY  FROM  1833  TO  1845 


"  It  is  the  tendency  of  some  theorists  at  present  to  put  Jesus 
and  hi3  life  into  the  background  ;  to  imagine  that  we  can  have 
a  religion  which  will  continuously  move  the  world  of  men  with- 
out a  human  master,  whose  life  not  only  kindles  human  emotion 
round  human  life,  but  also  fills  the  aspirations  of  our  soul  with 
the  belief  that  they  have  been  accomplished  by  one  of  ourselves, 
in  humanity.  There  are  those  who  think  that  the  vast  con- 
ception of  the  Father  is  enough  for  life  without  the  conception 
of  a  human  life  in  which  all  that  the  Father  conceived  for  man 
was  realized  on  earth  to  claim  our  love.  I  do  not  believe  it. 
Were  it  so,  God  himself  would  have  thought  so.  But  He  did 
not.  When  man  was  educated  by  God  to  the  point  where  he 
coidd  see  greater  truths,  God  gave  the  world  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
the  Son  of  Man,  that  we  might  know  what  love  was  in  human- 
ity ;  and  might  love  Him  for  that  love,  from  which  neither 
death  nor  life  shall  part  us.  Thus  all  that  men  feel  for  divinity 
in  God  the  Father  was,  in  the  religious  life,  doubled  by  all  that 
men  feel  for  humanity.  Take  Jesus,  then,  to  your  heart.  Love 
of  him  is  necessary  for  our  religion,  if  it  is  to  have  a  full  power  of 
redemption  among  men.  It  is  needed  to  give  our  causes  move- 
ment, our  ideas  personality,  our  life  tenderness,  our  human  soul 
its  full  expansion  in  love  over  all  the  children  of  God."  —  Stop- 
fobd  A.  Bkookb,  The  Gospel  of  Joy,  p.  95. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MINISTRY   FROM   1833   TO    1845 

It  was  in  December,  1833,  that  Bushnell  took 
possession  of  a  house  which  had  been  built  during 
the  summer  from  his  own  plans.  It  is  described 
as  "  a  simple,  square,  two-story  building,  with 
small  green  yard,  graced  by  a  noble  oak  in  the 
rear."  In  selecting  the  lot,  he  had  provided  for 
two  things,  —  a  garden,  and  an  open  view  of  the 
country  ending  in  distant  hills.  Each  was  a  neces- 
sity to  him,  —  the  manifold  life  of  growing  things, 
and  a  distant  horizon.  Thrifty  habits  and  a  prac- 
tical talent  that  rose  almost  to  genius  so  swelled 
his  moderate  stipend  that  it  furnished  the  means 
for  a  life  of  comfort  and  refinement.  From  be- 
ginning to  end  he  avoided  debt,  as  in  itself  poor 
economy  and  bad  morality ;  he  would  have  re- 
sented the  imputation  of  it  more  quickly  than 
that  of  heresy.  There  was  an  ethical  cleanness 
in  the  man  in  all  things  that  played  back  and 
forth  between  his  life  and  his  thought,  lending 
reality  to  each. 

We  have  but  scant  records  of  the  first  four  or 
five  years  of  his  ministry.  His  first  published 
sermon  was  under  the  title,  "  The  Crisis  of  the 
Church."      The   manuscript   still   exists,  labeled 


52  HORACE   BUSIINELL 

"  firstborn  child,"  intimating  that  others  might 
follow.  The  occasion  of  the  sermon  was  the  mob- 
bing  of  Garrison  in  the  streets  of  Boston.  Its 
chief  thought  was  that  Protestantism  in  religion 
produces  republicanism  in  government ;  that  the 
principal  dangers  to  the  country  were  "  slavery, 
infidelity,  Romanism,  and  the  current  of  our  politi- 
cal tendencies."  He  clearly  saw  the  inflammable 
nature  of  slavery,  and  the  probability  that  it  might 
at  "  any  hour  explode  the  foundations  of  the  Re- 
public." The  cast  of  the  sermon  is  large,  and, 
if  mistaken  in  some  respects,  it  measured  with 
great  accuracy  the  political  dangers.  It  was  not 
an  easy  subject  on  which  to  preach  at  that  time. 
In  many  pulpits  it  was  tabooed ;  churches  were 
divided,  and  the  intolerance  of  the  parties  toward 
each  other  was  intense.  Bushnell  was  quite  ready 
for  criticism,  but  he  escaped  it  by  a  high  flight 
among  the  principles  of  his  subject.  During  this 
period  he  began  to  produce  those  sermons  which 
are  among  the  clearest  signs  of  his  greatness  both 
as  a  preacher  and  a  theologian.  In  the  first  year 
of  his  ministry  he  wrote  a  sermon  on  "  Duty  not 
Measured  by  our  own  Ability  "  that  would  have 
sustained  his  reputation  twenty  years  later.  The 
subject  was  a  firebrand  in  the  pulpits  about  him, 
and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  how  the  congregation 
anxiously  settled  themselves  in  their  pews  and 
waited  to  hear  on  which  side  of  the  general  con- 
troversy the  young  pastor  would  put  himself  in 
his  discussion  of  the  "  important  principle,  —  that 


MINISTRY   FROM   1833  TO   1845  53 

men  are  often,  and  properly,  put  under  obligation 
to  do  that  for  which  they  have,  in  themselves,  no 
present  ability."  But  neither  side  heard  what  it  ex- 
pected. Old  School  and  New  School  were  ignored, 
or  gently  set  aside  to  make  room  for  a  discussion 
that  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  differences 
except  to  supersede  or  rather  to  absorb  them  in  a 
more  comprehensive  view  of  the  subject.  Nothing 
was  said  of  natural  ability,  or  moral  ability,  or 
gracious  ability,  except  that  "  they  raise  a  false 
issue  which  can  never  be  settled."  To  thus  dismiss 
a  controversy  which  had  raged  since  Edwards,  and 
was  now  embodied  in  the  neighboring  divinity 
schools,  would  have  been  regarded  as  a  jest  if  his 
treatment  of  it  had  not  been  so  serious.  Instead 
of  sinking  himself  and  his  hearers  in  "  the  abys- 
mal depths  of  theology,"  he  carried  them  into 
the  world  of  human  life  and  Christian  experi- 
ence, where  all  was  so  much  a  matter  of  fact  that 
there  was  small  room  for  question.  Arminius  and 
Edwards,  Taylor  and  Tyler,  would  have  listened 
without  dissent,  —  bating  a  phrase  or  two,  —  and 
for  the  time  woidd  have  forgotten  their  differ- 
ences ;  or  possibly,  as  often  happens  with  con- 
testants when  a  greater  truth  is  forced  upon  them, 
they  might  have  said,  "  We  always  thought  so." 
For,  in  truth,  Bushnell  thus  early  was  "passing 
into  the  vein  of  comprehensiveness,"  of  which  he 
afterward  spoke, — a  phrase  that  defines  better 
than  any  other  the  method  and  spirit  of  the  man. 
His  own  words   in    a   sermon   preached   on    the 


54  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

twentieth  anniversary  of  his  ordination  describe 
the  theological  situation  and  his  relation  to  it :  — 

"  I  was  just  then  passing  into  the  vein  of  com- 
prehensiveness, questioning  whether  all  parties 
were  not  in  reality  standing  for  some  one  side 
or  article  of  the  truth  ;  prepared  in  that  manner 
to  be  at  once  independent  of  your  two  parties  and 
the  more  cordial  to  both,  that  I  was  beginning  to 
hold,  under  a  different  resolution  of  the  subjects, 
all  that  both  parties  were  contending  for.  My 
position  among  you  kept  me  always  in  living  con- 
tact with  the  opposite  poles  to  be  comprehended, 
and  assisted  me,  by  an  external  pressure,  in  real- 
izing more  and  more  distinctly  what  I  was  faintly 
conceiving  or  trying  to  elaborate  within ;  till, 
finally,  my  question  became  a  truth  experimen- 
tally proved,  and  I  rested  in  the  conviction  that 
the  comprehensive  method  is,  in  general,  a  pos- 
sible, and,  so  far,  the  only  Christian  method  of 
adjusting  theologic  differences.  .  .   . 

"  Accordingly,  the  effect  of  my  preaching  never 
was  to  overthrow  one  school  and  set  up  the  other ; 
neither  was  it  to  find  a  position  of  neutrality  mid- 
way between  them ;  but,  as  far  as  theology  is  con- 
cerned, it  was  to  comprehend,  if  possible,  the  truth 
contended  for  in  both  ;  in  which  I  had,  of  course, 
abundant  practice  in  the  subtleties  of  speculative 
language,  but  had  the  Scriptures  always  with  me, 
bolting  out  their  free,  incautious  oppositions,  re- 
gardless of  all  subtleties." 

He  was  unlike  most  preachers  who  represent 


MINISTRY  FROM  1833  TO  1845  53 

transitions.  He  did  not  begin  on  the  level  of 
those  about  him,  but  started  out  with  a  habit  of 
thought  and  a  set  of  principles  which  separated 
him  from  his  brethren  even  more  than  he  knew. 
He  could  no  more  be  classed  with  them  than 
"Aids  to  Reflection"  could  be  classed  with 
Dwight's  "  Theology."  There  were  no  breaks  in 
his  ministry,  as  in  the  case  of  Newman  and  Chan- 
ning  and  Robertson ;  his  revolt  came  prior  to  his 
settlement,  and  was  so  thorough  both  on  the 
destructive  and  constructive  side  that  he  began 
his  career  without  need  of  any  radical  change 
either  in  theology  or  method.  His  first  volume  — 
"  Sermons  for  the  New  Life  "  —  covers  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  but  so  far  as  style,  thought,  and 
doctrine  go,  it  would  be  difficult  to  assign  a  date 
to  any  one  of  them.  That  on  "  Living  to  God  in 
Small  Things  "  was  preached  in  the  fifth  year  of 
his  ministry,  and  it  might  have  been  preached  in 
the  last,  for  he  produced  none  more  mature  and 
effective.  That  on  "  Every  Man's  Life  a  Plan  of 
God  "  —  an  early  sermon  —  made  an  impression 
as  deep  and  wide  as  any  preached  in  the  country, 
with  two  or  three  exceptions.  Not  many  years  ago 
the  New  York  "  Tribune  "  spoke  of  this  sermon 
as  one  of  the  three  greatest  ever  preached,  and 
named  as  the  other  two  Canon  Mozley's  on  the 
"  Reversal  of  Human  Judgments  "  and  Bishop 
Phillips  Brooks'  "Gold  and  the  Calf."  With- 
out containing  a  controversial  word,  it  swept  away 
the  dismal  thoughts  engendered  by  a  perverted 


m  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

doctrine  of  decrees,  and  brought  God  down  into 
the  lives  of  men  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  them 
feel  that  instead  of  being  the  objects  of  sovereign 
election,  they  were  co-workers  with  God  in  his 
eternal  plans.  It  had  all  of  Old  School  and  New 
School  that  was  of  value,  but  without  anything  to 
justify  either  as  they  then  existed. 

It  was  in  1835  —  only  two  years  after  his  set- 
tlement —  that  he  began  that  series  of  papers 
which  involved  him  in  question  and  suspicion. 
The  first  was  an  article  in  the  "  Christian  Spec- 
tator "  on  "  Revivals  of  Religion,"  which  was 
incorporated  eleven  years  later  into  "  Christian 
Nurture,"  —  a  book  which  had  its  genesis  and  its 
raison  d'etre  in  this  essay.  Fuller  mention  of  it 
will  be  made  in  the  next  chapter.  In  1837  he 
began  to  be  taught  in  the  school  of  domestic  sor- 
row. An  infant  daughter  died,  and  the  severe 
illness  of  an  older  child  kept  him  long  in  the 
region  of  suffering  and  death.  These  experi- 
ences, and  heavier  ones  that  came  later,  took  full 
possession  of  him,  but  they  bore  fruit  in  his 
thought,  and  formed  the  material  out  of  which 
he  constructed  what  might  seem  to  be  the  mere 
product  of  speculation.  All  his  greater  conten- 
tions had  for  their  basis  some  personal  experience. 

In  the  spring  of  1839  a  trouble  of  the  throat, 
already  felt,  began  to  show  itself  more  decidedly, 
and  from  that  time  on  his  life  was  overshadowed 
by  disease.  It  was,  however,  long  before  he  could 
be  called  an  invalid,  and  still  longer  before  he 


MINISTRY   FROM   1833  TO   1845  57 

relaxed  in  his  work,  but  the  fatal  mark  was  on 
liini.  He  spent  July  in  Saratoga,  and  with  bene- 
fit, if  we  may  judge  by  his  work  in  September. 
He  had  been  engaged  to  deliver  an  address  in 
Andover,  but  a  mistake  of  a  week  in  the  date  so 
shortened  his  time  for  preparation  that  he  had  but 
one  day  for  it.  He  wrote  through  one  day,  took 
the  stage  at  sundown,  rode  all  night  to  Worcester, 
and  the  next  day  to  Andover,  and  gave  his  address 
in  the  afternoon.  It  was  not  only  an  achievement 
in  physical  vigor,  but  a  turning-point  in  his  career 
as  a  theologian.  The  hastily  prepared  address  had 
been  a  subject  of  thought  since  college  days,  and 
contained  the  germ  which  was  afterward  fully  de- 
veloped in  his  theory  of  language.  In  discussing 
the  use  of  figures  and  methods  of  interpretation 
and  their  application  to  Biblical  statements  bear- 
ing on  the  Trinity,  he  entered  the  world  of  sus- 
picion and  accusation  from  which  he  never  wholly 
emerged.  He  knew  that  he  was  taking  the  first 
step,  and  that  others  must  follow.  It  induced  a 
state  of  mind  which,  coupled  with  impaired  health, 
is  best  indicated  by  a  letter  to  his  wife  written  a 
few  days  later  :  — 

"  I  cannot  but  feel  a  degree  of  anxiety  about 
myself  in  regard  to  my  future  health,  which  is 
constantly  acting  on  my  love  to  my  family.  This 
disease  hangs  about  me,  and  I  am  afraid  is  get- 
ting a  deeper  hold  of  me.  Not  that  I  seem  to 
have  been  specially  injured  by  my  late  task  in  the 
Andover  matter,  for  I  was  borne  through  it  quite 


58  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

above  my  expectations  ;  but  the  mischief  clings  to 
me,  and  will  not  let  me  go.  In  the  hasty  scratch 
I  sent  you  in  the  turmoil  of  the  anniversary,  I  told 
you  generally  how  I  succeeded.  ...  I  said  some 
things  very  cautiously  in  regard  to  the  Trinity 
which,  perhaps,  will  make  a  little  breeze.  If  so, 
I  shall  not  feel  much  upset.  I  have  been  think- 
ing lately  that  I  must  write  and  publish  the  whole 
truth  on  these  subjects  as  God  has  permitted 
me  to  see  it.  I  have  withheld  till  my  views  are 
well  matured ;  and  to  withhold  longer,  I  fear,  is 
a  want  of  that  moral  courage  which  animated 
Luther  and  every  other  man  who  has  been  a  true 
soldier  of  Christ.  Then,  thinking  of  such  men 
lately,  I  have  often  had  self-reproaches  which 
were  very  unpleasant.  Has  my  dear  wife  any  of 
Luther's  spirit  ?  Will  she  enter  into  the  hazards 
and  reproaches,  and  perhaps  privations,  which  lie 
in  this  encounter  for  the  truth  ?  Strange,  you 
will  say,  that  I  should  be  talking,  in  the  same  let- 
ter, of  doing  more  for  my  family  and  of  endanger- 
ing all  their  worldly  comforts.  But  I  am  under 
just  these  contending  impulses.  However,  in  what 
way  shall  I  do  more  for  my  family  than  to  con- 
nect their  history  with  the  truth  of  Christ  ?  How 
more,  for  example,  for  our  dear  boy  than  to  give 
him  the  name  and  example  of  a  father  who  left 
him  his  fortunes,  rough  and  hard  as  they  were,  in 
the  field  of  truth  ?  But  will  not  God  take  care  of 
us?  These  are  thoughts  which  have  been  urging 
me  for  the  last  few  months,  or  since  the  shock  that 


MINISTRY  FROM  1833  TO  1845  59 

has  befallen  my  health.  And  I  have  sometimes 
felt  afraid  that  I  should  be  obliged  to  leave  the 
world  before  my  work  was  done.  Shall  we  go 
forward  ?  " 

The  criticism  that  began  to  be  heard  outside 
showed  itself  at  last  in  his  parish,  though  it  never 
reached  the  point  of  accusation.  A  letter  which 
time  has  spared  reveals  a  feature  of  the  churches 
on  their  theological  side  which  still  survives,  though 
in  lessening  degree.  It  was  an  arraignment  by  a 
parishioner  of  his  pastor  for  his  position  on  pro- 
found questions  of  theology,  such  as  regeneration 
and  original  sin,  which  he  debated  as  a  professional, 
and  with  the  emphasis  of  having  held  his  own  views 
for  thirty  years.  It  did  not  occur  to  him,  nor  ap- 
parently to  any  one  else  at  that  time,  to  inquire  if 
the  views  of  his  pastor  might  not  be  true ;  his  only 
concern  was  lest  he  had  departed  from  the  accepted 
standards  of  belief.  Such  a  state  of  mind,  whenever 
it  prevails,  shows  a  decadence  of  faith  and  a  readi- 
ness to  stone  the  prophets.  Bushnell  answered 
the  letter  in  a  patient  spirit,  and  with  explanation 
except  on  the  point  of  total  depravity,  a  question 
on  which  he  would  not  prematurely  cast  away  the 
pearls  he  had  been  gathering.  The  arraignment 
came  to  no  issue  in  the  church.  Meanwhile  he 
went  on  his  way  not  much  troubled  and  wholly 
unmoved  by  criticism,  from  whatever  source  it 
came,  bearing  witness  to  the  truth  as  he  saw  it. 

In  1840  he  preached  a  notable  sermon  on 
w  American  Politics,"  in  which  he  protested  against 


60  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

giving  the  suffrage  to  women  on  the  ground  that 
it  would  destroy  the  peace  and  unity  of  domestic 
life,  —  "  the  grand  sacrament  of  creation."  In 
the  discussion  of  this  subject,  as  of  all  others,  he 
struck  straight  for  the  natural  principle  underlying 
it,  and  found  it  in  the  family.  lie  spoke  also  of 
the  spoils  system  in  a  way  that  classes  him  with  the 
civil  service  reformers  of  to-day. 

In  the  same  year  he  was  asked  to  become  the 
president  of  Middlebury  College,  in  Vermont.  The 
Coleridgian  atmosphere  of  the  institution  was  con- 
genial to  him,  but  after  a  journey  thither  and 
mature  deliberation,  he  declined  the  invitation. 
The  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  was  conferred 
upon  him  about  this  time  by  Wesleyan  University. 
He  cared  little  for  the  honor,  but  accepted  it  rather 
than  seem  to  reject  the  courtesy  of  a  young  and 
neighboring  college.  He  afterward  received  the 
same  degree  from  Harvard,  and  that  of  Doctor 
of  Laws  from  Yale.  The  years  from  this  time  to 
1845  were  crowded  with  various  forms  of  work.  He 
seemed  to  celebrate  the  full  development  of  his 
powers  by  reaching  out  in  all  directions  for  com- 
mensurate fields.  His  biographer  says  that  "  there 
were  years  all  through  his  life  when  a  high  tide 
seemed  to  set  into  every  mental  inlet."  It  could 
at  no  time  be  said  of  him  that  he  neglected  his 
parish,  but  his  conception  of  it  was  not  territorial. 
If  he  preached  politics,  his  sermons  became  ethical 
treatises  on  the  nature  and  function  of  government. 
He  held  to  the  Puritan  conception  of  the  State  as 


MINISTRY  FROM  1833  TO   1845  61 

moral,  and  did  not  hesitate  to  use  his  pulpit  to  en- 
force this  conception,  and  to  denounce  any  depar- 
ture from  it.  The  anti-slavery  movement  was  so 
distinctly  Christian  that  Bushnell  would  not  keep 
it  out  of  his  pidpit,  even  if  his  sermons  were  re- 
garded and  used  as  campaign  documents,  as  hap- 
pened with  a  Fast  Day  discourse  preached  in  1844, 
during  the  presidential  campaign  when  Henry 
Clay  was  the  candidate.  Bushnell  denounced  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  of  which  Clay  was  the  au- 
thor, as  "  bringing  moral  desolation  on  the  fairest 
portion  of  the  globe."  When  criticised,  he  claimed 
that  he  was  not  assailing  Mr.  Clay  as  a  candidate, 
but  as  the  leader  in  "  a  national  sin."  In  1842  we 
find  hjm  going  about  on  lecturing  tours,  though 
he  was  rather  too  serious  and  weighty  a  speaker  to 
win  popular  applause.  In  August  he  delivered  a 
Commencement  address  at  Hudson,  Ohio,  before 
Western  Reserve  College,  the  Yale  of  the  West, 
on  the  "  Stability  of  Change."  In  this  year  a 
great  sorrow  befell  him  in  the  death  of  his  only 
son,  a  child  of  four  years  and  of  great  promise. 
His  disappointment  and  grief  were  keen,  but  the 
event  drove  him  farther  into  the  world  of  the  spirit, 
and  served  to  fit  him  for  receiving  those  deeper 
revelations  of  Christian  life  which  are  seen  in  his 
later  work.  It  also  gave  reality  to  his  thoughts 
of  the  heavenly  world.  "  Have  not  I  a  harper 
there  ?  "  he  said  in  an  evening  sermon  soon  after 
his  loss. 

In  1843  he  became  interested  in  the  Protestant 


62  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

League,  which  later  was  merged  in  the  Christian 
Alliance,  a  movement  antagonistic  to  the  Church 
of  Rome.  During  the  next  three  years  he  devoted 
much  time  and  strength  to  this  object,  wasting  his 
forces  on  questions  which  time  and  Providence 
are  settling  in  ways  far  different  from  those  he 
contemplated.  But  his  interest  was  a  Puritan  in- 
heritance, and  the  questions  were  such  as  easily  en- 
listed one  whose  religion  and  patriotism  were  almost 
interchangeable  terms.  Perhaps  nothing  that  came 
from  his  pen  is  to  be  more  lightly  passed  over  than 
his  letter  to  the  Pope,  written  while  in  London  in 
1846.  Fortunately  for  Bushnell  and  his  future 
career,  the  Christian  Alliance  merged  itself  in  the 
Evangelical  Alliance,  which,  in  lowering  its  name, 
logically  dropped  into  a  doctrinal  narrowness  that 
led  him  to  give  it  up.  When  the  new  society 
began  its  campaign  for  church  unity  on  the 
basis  of  an  exclusive  doctrinal  creed,  he  withdrew, 
leaving  behind  him  a  protest  full  of  wise  words, 
equally  appropriate  to  later  proposals  for  union  on 
ecclesiastical  terms  proceeding  from  one  party. 

"  Unity  in  itself,  especially  unity  conditioned 
upon  a  common  catechism,  is  not  an  object.  Neither 
is  it  a  thing  to  be  compassed  by  any  direct  effort. 
It  is  an  incident,  not  a  principle,  or  a  good  by 
itself.  It  has  its  value  in  the  valuable  activities 
it  unites,  and  the  conjoining  of  beneficent  powers. 
The  more  we  seek  it,  the  less  we  have  it.  Besides, 
most  of  wrhat  we  call  division  in  the  Church  of 
God  is  only  distribution.     The  distribution  of  the 


MINISTRY  FROM  1833  TO   1845  63 

church,  like  that  of  human  society,  is  one  of  the 
great  problems  of  divine  wisdom ;  and  the  more 
we  study  it,  observing  how  the  personal  tastes, 
wants,  and  capacities  of  men  in  all  ages  and  climes 
are  provided  for,  and  how  the  parts  are  made  to 
act  as  stimulants  to  each  other,  the  less  disposed 
shall  we  be  to  think  that  the  work  of  distribu- 
tion is  done  badly.  It  is  not  the  same  thing  with 
Christian  unity,  either  to  be  huddled  into  a  small 
inclosure,  or  to  show  the  world  how  small  a  plat 
of  ground  we  can  all  stand  on.  Unity  is  a  grace 
broad  as  the  universe,  embracing  in  its  ample  bosom 
all  right  minds  that  live,  and  outreaching  the  nar- 
row contents  of  all  words  and  dogmas."  x 

In  1843  Bushnell  gave  an  address  before  the 
Alumni  of  Yale  College  on  "  The  Growth  of  Law," 
to  which  reference  will  be  made  farther  on.  It  is 
named  here  in  order  to  call  attention  to  the  criti- 
cism which  increasingly  followed  him  whenever  he 
spoke.  An  anonymous  pamphlet  by  "  Catholicus  " 
discovered  in  the  address  "  Rationalistic,  Soci- 
nian,  and  infidel  tendencies."  Such  attacks  were 
not  lost,  and  served  as  fuel  for  the  fires  soon  to  be 
kindled.  "  The  Puritan  "  (Orthodox)  indorsed  the 
pamphlet,  and  "  The  Christian  Register  "  (Unita- 
rian) stretched  out  its  hand  for  possible  fellowship. 
In  the  same  year  he  attended  the  Bunker  Hill  cele- 
bration, walking  arm  in  arm  with  George  Ripley  of 
Brook  Farm,  and  heard  Webster,  whom  he  always 
admired,  deliver  one  of  his  famous  orations.  More 
1  New  Englander,  January,  1847. 


64  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

important  was  an  evening  spent  with  Rev.  Theo- 
dore Parker,  when  they  "went  over  the  whole 
ground  of  theology  together."  It  is  safe  to  say 
that  neither  appealed  to  the  "  standards."  Five 
publications,  the  care  of  his  pulpit,  and  the  excite- 
ment of  a  presidential  campaign  rendered  the  year 
1844  a  hard  one,  and  paved  the  way  for  a  thor- 
ough breakdown  in  health  the  following  year. 
His  more  than  ordinary  strength  yielded  under 
great  and  exhausting  labors,  and  in  February  he 
was  prostrated  by  a  fever  which  left  him  with  weak- 
ened lungs.  His  salary  was  increased  by  his  sym- 
pathetic parish,  and  in  April  he  went  to  North 
Carolina,  where  rest  and  the  "warmer  sun  and 
sweeter  climate  "  restored  him  in  a  measure,  but 
not  sufficiently  for  his  duties.  A  year  in  Europe 
was  determined  on,  and  he  sailed  by  the  ship  Vic- 
toria in  July,  1845. 


CHAPTER  V 
CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 


"  It  is  significant  of  every  great  new  birth  in  the  world  that 
it  tnrns  its  face  toward  childhood,  and  looks  into  that  image  for 
the  profoundest  realization  of  its  hopes  and  dreams.  In  the  at- 
titude of  men  toward  childhood  we  may  discover  the  near  or  far 
realization  of  that  supreme  hope  and  confidence  with  which  the 
great  head  of  the  human  family  saw,  in  the  vision  of  a  child,  the 
new  heaven  and  the  new  earth.  It  was  when  his  disciples  were 
reasoning  among  themselves  which  of  them  should  be  the  great- 
est, that  Jesus  took  a  child,  and  set  him  by  him,  and  said  unto 
them,  '  Whosoever  shall  receive  this  child  in  my  name  receiveth 
me.'  The  reception  of  the  Christ  by  men,  from  that  day  to 
this,  has  been  marked  by  successive  throes  of  humanity,  and  in 
each  great  movement  there  has  been  a  new  apprehension  of 
childhood,  a  new  recognition  of  the  meaning  involved  in  the  preg- 
nant words  of  the  Saviour."  —  Horace  E.  Scudder,  Childhood 
in  Literature  and  Art,  p.  102. 

"The  theological  substratum  of  Puritan  morality  denied  to 
childhood  any  freedom,  and  kept  the  life  of  man  in  waiting  upon 
the  conscious  turning  of  the  soul  to  God.  Hence  childhood  was 
a  time  of  probation  and  suspense.  It  was  wrong,  to  begin  with, 
and  was  repressed  in  its  nature  until  maturity  should  bring  an 
active  and  conscious  allegiance  to  God.  Hence,  also,  parental 
anxiety  was  forever  earnestly  seeking  to  anticipate  the  maturity 
of  age,  and  to  secure  for  childhood  that  reasonable  intellectual 
belief  which  it  held  to  be  essential  to  salvation ;  there  followed 
often  a  replacement  of  free  childhood  by  an  abnormal  develop- 
ment. In  any  event,  the  tendency  of  the  system  was  to  ignore 
childhood,  to  get  rid  of  it  as  quickly  as  possible,  and  to  make 
the  State  contain  only  self-conscious,  determined  citizens  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  There  was,  unwittingly,  a  reversal  of  the 
divine  message,  and  it  was  said  in  effect  to  children,  Except 
ye  become  as  grown  men  and  be  converted,  ye  cannot  enter  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. "  —  Ibid.,  p.  128. 


CHAPTER  V 

CHRISTIAN   NURTURE 

We  pass  over  the  journey  to  Europe  and  other 
incidents  of  Bushnell's  life  in  order  to  speak  con- 
secutively of  the  theological  treatises  which  came 
one  after  another  from  his  busy  pen.  The  most 
important  of  all,  "Christian  Nurture,"  was  pub- 
lished in  1846.  It  had  been,  however,  ten  years  in 
preparation,  having  had  its  genesis  in  an  article  on 
"  Revivals  of  Religion,"  published  in  1836  in  the 
"  Christian  Spectator."  Its  specific  aim  was  to  es- 
tablish the  proposition,  "  That  the  child  is  to  grow 
up  a  Christian,  and  never  know  himself  as  being 
otherwise."  A  very  simple  statement,  but  it  shook 
New  England  theology  to  its  foundations.  The 
phrase,  by  its  very  form,  challenged  the  extreme 
individualism  into  which  the  churches  had  lapsed, 
and  recalled  them  to  those  organic  relations  be- 
tween parents  and  children  which  are  recognized 
in  the  historic  churches,  and  which  also  had  been 
recognized  to  a  certain  extent  by  the  churches 
of  New  England  before  Edwards.  As  has  hap- 
pened before  in  theological  controversy,  the  heresy 
with  which  Bushnell  was  charged  in  connection 
with  this  subject  was  in  fact  a  return  to  an  older 
orthodoxy.     It  is  also  a  fact  that  those  who  were 


68  HORACE  BUSIINELL 

loudest  in  making  the  charge  regarded  themselves 
as  upholders  of  this  older  orthodoxy.  They  iden- 
tified Bushnell  with  the  "  New  Light "  party,  but 
his  book  in  the  main  fell  within  the  lines  of  the 
older  school  to  which  the  critics  supposed  that  they 
belonged. 

The  critics  were  deceived  by  the  modern  tone 
in  which  Bushnell  discussed  the  ancient  thesis, 
and  by  the  free  use  made  of  nature  and  social 
laws  and  relations.  In  this  respect  they  were  jus- 
tified in  their  criticism.  Bushnell  was  working  in 
a  world  of  which  they  had  little  knowledge  and 
great  suspicion.  The  fact  that  his  thesis  coincided 
with  an  older  orthodoxy  was  a  matter  of  chance  ; 
in  reality  it  sprang  out  of  the  heart  of  nature. 
Christian  experience  had  become  non-natural. 
Bushnell,  without  excluding  the  agency  of  divine 
grace,  brought  it  within  the  play  of  the  natural  re- 
lations of  the  family.  It  was  here  that  he  always 
took  his  first  look  at  any  subject,  —  the  nature  of 
the  matter  in  hand,  —  not  waiting  to  ask  what  is 
the  accepted  view.  It  is  this  first-hand  investiga- 
tion that  lends  to  all  his  work  the  charm  of  nature 
itself.  It  is  also  at  times  an  occasion  of  suspicion, 
for  the  direct  study  of  nature  is  the  most  difficult 
work  men  ever  undertake.  Nature  is  so  full  of 
light  that  it  dazzles  and  of  shadows  that  it  hides ; 
it  is  so  near  that  its  proportions  cannot  easily  be 
measured ;  it  is  elusive  and  runs  quickly  into 
mystery ;  it  is  so  one  with  us  that  to  see  it  is  like 
the  eye  trying  to  see  itself  ;  its  processes  are  long 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  69 

and  its  phases  are  many  ;  it  is  the  part  of  an  im- 
measurable whole.  Bushnell  did  not  always  escape 
these  snares,  yet  few  writers  have  looked  on  nature 
with  a  more  single  eye  and  more  careful  reflec- 
tion. 

It  is  not  wholly  unfortunate  that  in  the  study  of 
Christian  nurture  he  came  to  it  without  a  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  its  place  in  the  history  of  the 
church.  Whatever  technical  knowledge  of  it  he 
had  was  pushed  aside  by  his  own  necessary  mental 
habit,  and  by  the  circumstances  in  which  he  found 
himself  as  a  pastor.  He  was  confronted  by  a  sit- 
uation, and  at  first  did  not  trouble  himself  about 
the  past.  Hence,  it  was  with  half  surprise  that 
he  found  himself  unfolding  a  more  ancient  or- 
thodoxy. The  fact  became  convenient  as  a  de- 
fense against  criticism,  but  it  had  slight  weight  in 
the  elaboration  of  his  thesis.  The  book  was  a  crit- 
icism of  revivalism,  and  incidentally  of  the  pre- 
valent theology  which  gave  rise  to  it.  Bushnell 
seldom  attacked  this  theology  as  a  whole,  but  only 
in  detail  and  as  it  came  in  his  way.  He  wrote  as 
a  pastor  in  conflict  with  a  system  which  hindered 
him  in  his  work.  He  could  not  correlate  the  teach- 
ing of  his  pulpit  with  the  prevailing  method  of 
propagating  the  life  of  the  church.  The  "  im- 
provements "  in  theology  had  subordinated  the 
"  older  orthodoxy  "  of  the  subject  to  a  view  of  the 
will  which  led  to  those  special  features  of  revivals 
that  Bushnell  most  disliked.  The  will  had  not 
only  been  declared  free,  but  was  made  to  cover 


70  HORACE  BUSIINELL 

nearly  the  whole  matter  of  becoming  a  Chris- 
tian.1 

The  revival  was  an  active  epitome  of  the  newer 
doctrine  of  the  will.  The  emphasis  laid  upon  it 
and  the  intense  individualism  it  developed,  while 
it  favored  strength  of  character,  tended  to  obscure 
that  field  where  character  has  its  roots  and  is 
mainly  determined ;  namely,  the  child.  The  peo- 
ple of  New  England  have  never  been  wanting  in 
logic.  It  was  this  mental  honesty  in  conforming 
the  revival  to  the  theology  that  at  last  weakened 
each,  but  the  revival  was  the  first  to  lose  ground. 

The  question  may  arise  why  "  the  more  ancient 
orthodoxy  "  with  which  Bushnell  found  himself  in 
partial  accord  did  not  conflict  with  the  practical 
treatment  of  children  in  the  same  way  as  did  the 
orthodoxy  of  his  own  day.  The  Puritan  move- 
ment, in  its  early  days,  was  chiefly  a  protest 
against  corruptions.  The  place  of  children  in  the 
historic  church  was  not  in  itself  an  offense  in  the 
eye  of  the  Puritan,  and  it  was  protected  by  a  doc- 
trine of  the  covenants  which  brought  the  Abra- 
hamic  and  Jewish  institutions  that  pertained   to 

1  Mrs.  Stowe,  who  ought  to  be  classed  as  both  an  apologist  and 
a  critic  of  the  New  England  theology,  for  few  have  understood 
and  none  have  described  it  so  well,  in  Oldtown  Folks  (vol.  ii. 
p.  48,  and  many  succeeding  pages)  has  put  this  point  in  its  best 
light :  "  The  keynote  of  Mr.  Avery's  mind  was  '  the  free  agency 
of  man.'  Free  agency  was  with  him  the  universal  solvent,  the 
philosopher's  stone  in  theology ;  every  line  in  his  sermons  said  to 
every  human  being,  '  You  are  free,  and  you  are  able.'  And  the 
great  object  was  to  intensify  to  its  highest  point,  in  every  human 
being,  the  sense  of  individual,  personal  responsibility." 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  71 

them  over  into  the  Christian  Church,  —  a  relation 
that  was  sustained  by  ineradicable  common  sense. 
The  covenants  may  have  been  made  in  Holland, 
as  Professor  Park  said,  but  the  covenant  that  em- 
braces Abraham  and  his  seed  was  true  before  the 
dikes  of  Holland  were  built.  Baptism  made  the 
child  a  member  of  the  church,  and  Christian  train- 
ing was  expected  to  fulfill  and  perfect  the  relation 
so  far  as  it  could  under  the  limitations  of  the 
theology.1 

These  were  stringent  and  perplexing  enough ; 

1  The  relation  of  baptized  children  to  the  church  has  never 
been  clearly  defined  by  the  Congregational  churches  of  New 
England.  The  system,  as  embracing  a  theology  and  an  ecclesi- 
astical order,  is  at  war  with  itself.  The  Cambridge  Platform 
in  1648,  under  the  still  fresh  reaction  from  the  state  church,  al- 
lowed none  to  be  members  of  the  Church  but  such  as  gave  evi- 
dence of  spiritually  renewed  character.  But  as  baptism  was  a 
requisite  to  citizenship  in  most  of  the  colonies,  it  was  found  that 
the  State  was  limiting  its  citizens  beyond  the  bounds  of  safety. 
Hence  the  Synod  of  1662  created  the  Half-way  Covenant,  which 
provided  for  the  baptism  of  the  children  of  those  who  held  only 
a  speculative  faith  ;  it  was  purely  a  measure  of  State.  This 
device  induced  a  reaction  and  a  debate  which  may  be  traced 
throughout  the  pages  of  Cotton  Mather's  Magnolia.  It  reveals 
the  fact  that  children  were  regarded  as  sustaining  some  organic 
relation  to  the  church  by  virtue  of  baptism.  Anabaptism  also 
had  begun  to  cast  its  shadow  on  the  churches,  inducing  the  ne- 
cessity of  making  a  contrast  with  it  as  to  the  relation  of  children 
to  the  church.  The  confusion  of  the  subject  was  plainly  recog- 
nized by  Hopkins,  who  took  what  might  be  called  a  high  church 
view  of  baptism,  as  Bushnell  shows  in  his  Argument  for  Christian 
Nurture,  pp.  70,  71,  a  book  now  out  of  print.  But  the  confusion 
lingers  still,  and  will  linger  until  the  theory  of  the  nature  and 
growth  of  the  church  taught  by  this  treatise  is  accepted.  It 
is  needless  to  say  that  it  will  be  a  return  to  the  historic  view  and 
practice. 


72  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

but  as  in  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy  an  epicycle 
was  added  whenever  a  difficulty  was  encountered, 
so  provisions  were  created  out  of  the  assumed 
purposes  of  God  for  relieving  children  from  the 
full  stress  of  absolute  and  unconditional  election. 
Moreover,  magical  conceptions  of  the  ordinance 
lingered  long  and  overbore  logic.  Consistent  Cal- 
vinism allows  no  place  in  the  church  for  children. 
Whether  it  be  old  or  new,  it  breaks  down  over 
them,  as  Dr.  Prentiss  showed  long  ago.1  It  can- 
not dispose  of  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  preserve 
its  consistency  and  command  the  assent  of  the 
human  heart.  As  the  heart  makes  the  theolo- 
gian, so  it  makes  and  unmakes  theologies.  Any 
system  must  at  last  go  under  that  gives  color  even 
to  an  inference  of  the  non-election  of  infants.  If 
it  endeavors  to  escape  its  inhumanity,  it  sinks 
under  the  weakness  of  its  subterfuges.  The  later 
theology,  by  the  very  force  of  its  logic,  could  not 
allow  children  to  lie  in  the  bosom  of  its  church, 
as  in  the  historical  churches.  Its  inwrought  indi- 
vidualism and  the  freedom  which  more  and  more 
it  put  into  the  will  were  carried  into  the  domain 
of  childhood.  The  revivalism  known  as  the 
"  Great  Awakening  "  invaded  the  precincts  of  the 
church  where  the  young  reposed  in  the  security 
of  baptism  and  the  parental  pledge,  and  brought 
them  forward  as  candidates  for  its  process.  In 
attacking  revivalism,  Bushnell  stormed  the  weakest 
point  of  the  theological  citadel.     It  should  not  be 

1  See  page  prefatory  to  next  chapter. 


CHRISTIAN   NURTURE  73 

forgotten,  however,  that  the  moderate  Calvinism, 
especially  as  taught  at  New  Haven,  in  which  the 
full  freedom  of  the  will  was  brought  to  the  front 
and  made  the  chief  factor  in  the  first  experiences 
of  the  Christian  life,  was  the  source  of  great  reli- 
gious activity  and  usefulness.  Upon  the  whole  it 
was  an  advance,  and  almost  a  reform.  But  the 
emphasis  it  laid  upon  the  will,  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  other  parts  of  the  system,  necessarily 
favored  the  revival,  and,  incidentally,  its  excesses. 
The  ground  of  Bushnell's  contention  lay  first 
in  the  system  itself,  then  in  the  form  it  had 
assumed,  and  lastly  in  the  methods  to  which  it 
gave  rise.  More  than  he  himself  was  aware  of,  he 
departed  from  the  Calvinistic  standards,  and  pur- 
sued his  way  in  a  region  where  the  heart  and  com- 
mon sense  prescribed  both  path  and  bounds.  The 
fact  which  he  first  encountered  in  his  survey  of 
the  current  revival  was  that  the  experience  of  con- 
version presupposed  adult  years ;  and  even  the 
adult  was  called  to  pass  through  waters  too  deep 
for  him.  He  must  begin,  not  with  a  sense  of  per- 
sonal sin,  but  of  a  lost  condition  through  original 
sin  in  Adam  ;  he  must  feel  a  guilt  not  first  his 
own,  but  of  the  race ;  he  is  not  a  sinful  child  of 
the  Father,  but  a  child  of  wrath  lying  under  the 
righteous  condemnation  of  God ;  he  is  totally  de- 
praved, and  already  doomed  to  everlasting  punish- 
ment. The  whole  matter  was  complicated  by  a 
doctrine  of  sovereign  decrees,  election  and  repro- 
bation, ability  or  inability  to  repent,  —  often  a  ter- 


74  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

ritorial  distinction,  held  here  and  denied  there ; 
the  inefficacy,  or,  as  Hopkins  and  Emmons  de- 
clared, the  wickedness  of  prayer  by  the  unregen- 
erate  ;  different  kinds  of  grace  and  of  love  ;  the 
use  or  uselessness  of  means,  and  the  order  of  the 
human  and  the  divine  activity  in  the  process  of 
conversion.  Child  and  adult  alike  were,  in  one 
way  or  another,  involved  in  this  network  of  doc- 
trine. Much  of  it  was  necessarily  waived  in  the 
actual  revival ;  some  regard  was  paid  to  the  per- 
sonal equation ;  common  sense  could  not  be  wholly 
expelled  from  people  who  were  full  of  it.  But  sel- 
dom has  an  ideal  been  more  fully  carried  out,  and 
never  was  a  pulpit  truer  to  itself.  The  result  was 
that  the  people  were  saturated  with  the  doctrines 
as  they  happened  to  be  held  at  the  time  and  in 
the  region. 

Under  such  conceptions  of  religion  the  child  had 
little  place.  Nature  was  fairly  driven  off  from  the 
field  of  its  life,  and  it  was  made  the  battle-ground 
where  ponderous  doctrines  marched  up  and  down, 
trampling  under  foot  its  native  growths,  and  using 
its  eternal  destiny  as  a  factor  in  working  out  the 
glory  of  God.  The  child  filled  a  passive  part  in 
the  system ;  the  adidt  was  both  passive  and  active. 
His  experience  was  expected  to  tally  with  the  sys- 
tem and  run  the  round  of  its  several  members  in 
a  fixed  order.  First  came  the  question  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  non-election,  by  which  all  efforts  were 
left  to  turn  on  chance.  Then  came  the  question 
of  ability  under  a  doctrine  of  total  depravity,  start- 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  75 

ing  the  puzzle  of,  "  You  can  and  you  can't ; "  then 
the  horrible  question  of  the  possibility  of  having 
grieved  away  the  Holy  Spirit,  for  two  centuries  the 
nightmare  of  the  piety  of  New  England  ;  then  the 
beclouded  subtilties  of  the  relation  of  the  atone- 
ment to  personal  character,  —  all  chiefly  forensic. 
Still  the  experience  was  sharply  individual.  Each 
soid  was  isolated  from  every  other,  and  almost  from 
God,  and  left  to  wrestle  alone  for  salvation. 

The  chief  feature  of  this  phase  of  religious 
experience  was  its  unnaturalness.  Great  truths 
were  involved  in  the  system,  and  great  results 
sprang  out  of  them,  but  they  were  so  defined  and 
used  that  they  almost  lost  the  features  of  a  gospel 
and  wore  the  cast  of  a  doom.  It  dealt  with  hu- 
man nature  only  as  depraved,  and  hence  took  little 
account  of  its  varymg  characteristics  or  special 
needs,  but  loaded  it  with  burdens  that  did  not 
belong  to  it,  and  then  required  it  to  throw  them 
off  by  processes  that  were  drawn  out  of  metaphy- 
sical subtilties  buttressed  by  random  quotations 
from  Scripture. 

Bushnell  writes  of  it  as  follows :  — 

"It  is  a  religion  that  begins  exjolosively,  raises 
high  frames,  carries  little  or  no  expansion,  and, 
after  the  campaign  is  over,  subsides  into  a  torpor. 
Considered  as  a  distinct  era,  introduced  by  Ed- 
wards, and  extended  and  caricatured  by  his  con- 
temporaries, it  has  one  great  merit,  and  one  great 
defect.  The  merit  is  that  it  displaced  an  era  of 
dead   formality,  and  brought  in  the  demand  of 


76  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

a  truly  supernatural  experience.  The  defect  is 
that  it  has  cast  a  type  of  religious  individualism, 
intense  beyond  any  former  example.  It  makes 
nothing  of  the  family,  and  the  church,  and  the 
organic  powers  God  has  constituted  as  vehicles  of 
grace.  It  takes  every  man  as  if  he  had  existed 
alone;  presumes  that  he  is  unreconciled  to  God 
until  he  has  imdergone  some  sudden  and  explosive 
experience  in  adult  years,  or  after  the  age  of  rea- 
son ;  demands  that  experience,  and  only  when  it  is 
reached,  allows  the  subject  to  be  an  heir  of  life. 
Then,  on  the  other  side,  or  that  of  the  Sjnrit  of 
God,  the  very  act  or  ictus  by  which  the  change  is 
wrought  is  isolated  or  individualized,  so  as  to 
stand  in  no  connection  with  any  other  of  God's 
means  or  causes,  —  an  epiphany,  in  which  God 
leaps  from  the  stars,  or  some  place  above,  to  do 
a  work  apart  from  all  system,  or  connection  with 
his  other  works.  Religion  is  thus  a  kind  of  tran- 
scendental matter,  which  belongs  on  the  outside  of 
life,  and  has  no  part  in  the  laws  by  which  life  is 
organized,  —  a  miraculous  epidemic,  a  fireball  shot 
from  the  moon,  something  holy,  because  it  is  from 
God,  but  so  extraordinary,  so  out  of  place,  that  it 
cannot  suffer  any  vital  connection  with  the  ties, 
and  causes,  and  forms,  and  habits,  which  consti- 
tute the  frame  of  our  history.  Hence  the  desul- 
tory, hard,  violent,  and  often  extravagant  or  erratic 
character  it  manifests.  Hence,  in  part,  the  dreary 
years  of  decay  and  darkness  that  interspace  our 
months  of  excitement  and  victory."  (Christian 
Nurture,  p.  187.) 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  77 

The  full  purpose  of  the  treatise  was  to  discuss 
the  divine  constitution  of  the  family  as  the  means 
of  securing  Christian  character.  It  maintained 
that  the  unit  of  the  church  as  well  as  of  society 
is  the  family,  and  that  in  both  it  is  organic ;  that 
character  can  be  transmitted,  and  thus  Christianity 
can  be  organized  into  the  race  and  the  trend  of 
nature  be  made  to  set  in  that  direction.  The  pre- 
sumption should  be  that  children  may  be  trained 
into  piety,  and  that  it  is  not  necessary  that  con- 
version should  be  awaited  and  secured  under  a 
system  of  revivalism  that  is  without  order  as  to 
time  and  cause. 

The  book  consists  of  two  parts,  —  "  The  Doc- 
trine "  and  "The  Mode."  The  first  defines  the 
nature  of  Christian  nurture  ;  the  second  refers  to 
practical  methods  of  securing  it.  He  introduces 
his  thesis  and  debates  it  as  follows  :  — 

"  That  the  child  is  to  grow  up  a  Christian,  and 
never  know  himself  as  being  otherwise. 

"  In  other  words,  the  aim,  effort,  and  expectation 
should  be,  not,  as  is  commonly  assumed,  that  the 
child  is  to  grow  up  in  sin,  to  be  converted  after  he 
comes  to  a  mature  age  ;  but  that  he  is  to  open  on 
the  world  as  one  that  is  spiritually  renewed,  not  re- 
membering the  time  when  he  went  through  a  tech- 
nical experience,  but  seeming  rather  to  have  loved 
what  is  good  from  his  earliest  years  "  (p.  10). 

After  asserting  the  possibility  of  "  seeds  of  holy 
principle  "  and  its  signs  in  children,  and  of  possible 
fault  and  mistake  in  parents,  he  says  :  — 


78  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

"  You  must  not  assume  that  we,  in  this  age,  are 
the  best  Christians  that  have  ever  lived,  or  most 
likely  to  produce  all  the  fruits  of  piety.  .  .  .  We 
have  some  good  points,  in  which  we  compare  favor- 
ably with  other  Christians,  and  Christians  of  other 
times,  but  our  style  of  piety  is  sadly  deficient,  in 
many  respects,  and  that  to  such  a  degree  that  we 
have  little  cause  for  self -congratulation.  With  all 
our  activity  and  boldness  of  movement,  there  is  a 
certain  hardness  and  rudeness,  a  want  of  sensibility 
to  things  that  do  not  lie  in  action,  which  cannot 
be  too  much  deplored,  or  too  soon  rectified.  We 
hold  a  piety  of  conquest  rather  than  of  love,  —  a 
kind  of  public  piety,  that  is  strenuous  and  fiery 
on  great  occasions,  but  wants  the  beauty  of  holi- 
ness, wants  constancy,  singleness  of  aim,  loveli- 
ness, purity,  richness,  blamelessness,  and  —  if  I  may 
add  another  term  not  so  immediately  religious,  but 
one  that  carries,  by  association,  a  thousand  reli- 
gious qualities  —  wants  domesticity  of  character  ; 
wants  them,  I  mean,  not  as  compared  with  the  per- 
fect standard  of  Christ,  but  as  compared  with 
other  examples  of  piety  that  have  been  given  in 
former  times,  and  others  that  are  given  now. 

"  For  some  reason,  we  do  not  make  a  Christian 
atmosphere  about  us,  —  do  not  produce  the  convic- 
tion that  we  are  living  unto  God"  (pp.  11-14). 

"  This  is  the  very  idea  of  Christian  education, 
that  it  begins  with  nurture  or  cultivation.  And 
the  intention  is  that  the  Christian  life  and  spirit  of 
the  parents,  which  are  in  and  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  79 

shall  flow  Into  the  mind  of  the  child,  to  blend  with 
his  incipient  and  half-formed  exercises  ;  that  they 
shall  thus  beget  their  own  good  within  him,  —  their 
thoughts,  opinions,  faith,  and  love,  which  are  to 
become  a  little  more,  and  yet  a  little  more,  his 
own  separate  exercise,  but  still  the  same  in  char- 
acter. The  contrary  assumption,  that  virtue  must 
be  the  product  of  separate  and  absolutely  inde- 
pendent choice,  is  pure  assumption.  As  regards 
the  measure  of  personal  merit  and  demerit,  it  is 
doubtless  true  that  every  subject  of  God  is  to  be 
responsible  only  for  what  is  his  own.  But  virtue 
still  is  rather  a  state  of  being  than  an  act  or  series 
of  acts  ;  and  if  we  look  at  the  causes  which  in- 
duce or  prepare  such  a  state,  the  will  of  the  per- 
son himself  may  have  a  part  among  these  causes 
more  or  less  important,  and  it  works  no  absurdity 
to  suppose  that  one  may  be  even  prepared  to  such 
a  state,  by  causes  prior  to  his  own  will ;  so  that, 
when  he  sets  off  to  act  for  himself,  his  struggle 
and  duty  may  be  rather  to  sustain  and  perfect  the 
state  begun,  than  to  produce  a  new  one.  Certain 
it  is  that  we  are  never,  at  any  age,  so  independent 
as  to  be  wholly  out  of  the  reach  of  organic  laws 
which  affect  our  character. 

"  All  society  is  organic,  —  the  church,  the  state, 
the  school,  the  family  :  and  there  is  a  spirit  in  each 
of  these  organisms,  peculiar  to  itself,  and  more 
or  less  hostile,  more  or  less  favorable  to  religious 
character,  and  to  some  extent,  at  least,  sovereign 
over  the  individual  man.  .  .  .  The  child  is  only 


80  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

more  within  the  power  of  organic  laws  than  we  all 
are.  We  possess  only  a  mixed  individuality  all  our 
life  long.  A  pure,  separate,  individual  man,  living 
wholly  within,  and  from  himself,  is  a  mere  fiction. 
I  need  not  say  that  this  view  of  an  organic  con- 
nection of  character  subsisting  between  parent 
and  child  lays  a  basis  for  notions  of  Christian 
education,  far  different  from  those  which  now  pre- 
vail, under  the  cover  of  a  merely  fictitious  and 
mischievous  individualism  "  (p.  30). 

"  Something  has  undoubtedly  been  gained  to  mod- 
ern theology,  as  a  human  science,  by  fixing  the  atten- 
tion strongly  upon  the  individual  man,  as  a  moral 
agent,  immediately  related  to  God,  and  responsible 
only  for  his  own  actions ;  at  the  same  time  there 
was  a  truth,  an  important  truth,  underlying  the 
old  doctrine  of  federal  headship  and  original  or  im- 
puted sin,  though  strangely  misconceived,  which  we 
seem,  in  our  one-sided  speculations,  to  have  quite 
lost  sight  of.  And  how  can  we  ever  attain  to  any 
right  conception  of  organic  duties,  until  we  dis- 
cover the  reality  of  organic  powers  and  relations  ? 
And  how  can  we  hope  to  set  ourselves  in  harmony 
with  the  Scriptures,  in  regard  to  family  nurture, 
or  household  baptism,  or  any  other  kindred  sub- 
ject, while  our  theories  exclude,  or  overlook,  pre- 
cisely that  which  is  the  base  of  their  teachings  and 
appointments?"  (p.  39). 

His  criticism  of  revivals,  though  close  and 
searching,  still  has  charity  and  breadth,  for  which 
we  must  refer  the  reader  to  pages  59  and  onward. 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  81 

In  chapter  third,  under  a  significant  title, — 
"The  Ostrich  Nurture,"  —  the  prevailing  methods 
of  religious  education  are  discussed,  and  especially 
the  claim  that  children  should  be  left  to  grow 
up  in  a  spontaneous  way,  and  to  "  generate  their 
own  principles."  He  also  criticises  an  over-use  of 
"  free  moral  agency,  by  which  the  distinction  be- 
tween manhood  and  childhood  is  slurred  over," 
and  parents  are  led  to  say,  "  Must  not  our  children 
answer  for  themselves  ?  "  He  protests  also  against 
'*  notions  of  conversion  that  are  mechanical,"  and 
against  drilling  children  "  into  all  the  constraints, 
separated  from  all  the  hopes  and  liberties  of 
religion,"  thus  making  "  their  nurture  a  nurture 
of  despair,"  and  a  source  of  "  fixed  aversion  to 
religion."  He  again  protests  against  bringing  up 
children  in  expectation  of  revival  seasons,  and  on 
the  other  hand  against  "  a  mere  ethical  nurture  " 
that  neglects  the  God-ward  side.  This  strenuous 
chapter  closes  with  a  tender  vindication  of  the 
claim  that  as  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of  children, 
they  have  an  inherent  right  to  a  place  in  his 
church,  which  is  to  give  character  to  their  nurture. 

In  the  fourth  chapter  —  perhaps  the  weightiest 
—  the  "  organic  unity  "  of  the  family  is  discussed. 
He  repudiates  again  the  excessive  individualism  of 
the  day :  — 

"  The  state,  the  church,  the  family,  have  ceased 
to  be  regarded  as  such,  according  to  their  proper 
idea,  and  become  mere  collections  of  units.  A 
national   life,  a  church  life,  a  family  life,  is  no 


82  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

longer  conceived,  or  perhaps  conceivable,  by  many. 
Instead  of  being  wrought  in  together  and  pene- 
trated, to  some  extent,  by  historic  laws  and  forces 
common  to  all  the  members,  we  only  seem  to  lie 
as  seeds  piled  together,  without  any  terms  of  con- 
nection, save  the  accident  of  proximity,  or  the  fact 
that  we  all  belong  to  the  heap.  And  thus  the 
three  great  forms  of  organic  existence,  which  God 
has  appointed  for  the  race,  are  in  fact  lost  out  of 
mental  recognition  "  (p.  91). 

He  claims  for  the  family  a  power  that  is  more 
than  influence,  springing  from  "  organic  causes," 
which  act  unconsciously  prior  "  to  the  age  of 
rational  choice,"  yet  formatively  on  character. 
He  defends  his  position  by  a  series  of  arguments 
which  now  need  no  defense,  but  deserve  attention 
on  account  of  their  practical  value.  In  these 
pages  he  anticipates  much  that  is  being  said  on 
heredity  as  an  element  in  evolution,  and  on  sub- 
consciousness as  treated  by  the  new  psychology. 
The  questions  of  original  sin  and  federal  headship 
are  inevitably  involved,  and  are  accepted  as  con- 
taining truths,  but  rather  on  natural  than  on 
theological  grounds.1 

But  he  puts  these  doctrines  that  spring  out  of 

1  In  the  numerous  criticisms  which  followed  this  treatise,  none 
is  ahler  and  more  generous  than  that  of  Professor  C.  Hodge,  in 
the  Princeton  Review,  1847.  He  agrees,  with  but  slight  dissent, 
in  Bushnell's  treatment  of  the  organic  nature  of  the  church  and 
the  practical  inferences  drawn  from  it,  but  disagrees  with  his 
views  of  conversion  as  leaning  towards  mere  naturalism.  They 
were  both  farther  apart  and  nearer  than  either  knew ;  the  next 
half  century  might  have  brought  them  to  see  eye  to  eye. 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  83 

11  organic  unity  "  to  a  new  use,  making  them  tribu- 
tary to  grace  as  well  as  to  evil. 

"  That  an  engine  of  so  great  power  should  be 
passed  by,  when  every  other  law  and  object  in  the 
universe  is  appropriated  and  wielded  as  an  in- 
strument of  grace,  and  that  in  a  movement  for  the 
redemption  of  the  race,  is  inconceivable.  The 
conclusion  thus  reached  does  not  carry  us,  indeed, 
to  the  certain  inference  that  the  organic  unity  of 
the  family  will  avail  to  set  forth  every  child  of 
Christian  parents  in  a  Christian  life.  But  if  we 
consider  the  tremendous  power  it  has,  as  an  instru- 
ment of  evil,  how  far  short  of  such  an  opinion  does 
it  leave  us,  when  computing  the  reach  of  its  power 
as  an  instrument  of  grace?"  (p.  111). 

After  taking  pains  to  avoid  what  he  deems  the 
superstition  of  baptismal  regeneration,  he  finds  the 
reason  for  the  ceremony  in  the  "  organic  unity " 
of  the  parents  with  the  child,  who  "is  taken  to 
be  regenerate,  presumptively  on  the  ground  of  his 
known  connection  with  the  parents'  character,  and 
the  divine  or  church  life,  which  is  the  life  of  that 
character."  This  undoubtedly  is  the  interpretation 
that  reason  and  charity  require  us  to  put  on  the 
rite  as  it  exists  in  the  historical  churches.  Bush- 
nell  cherished  an  invincible  dislike  to  the  Church 
of  Rome,  and  it  is  a  sign  of  his  mental  honesty 
that  he  could  come  so  near  to  one  of  its  central 
features  without  stronger  aversion. 

In  the  last  chapter  of  the  first  part  he  brings 
his  plea  for  Christian  nurture  to  a  conclusion  by 


84  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

striving  to  show  that  the  church  is  to  possess  the 
world  tlrrough  "  the  out-populating  power  of  the 
Christian  stock."  The  chapter  is  a  characteristic 
mingling  of  spirituality  and  naturalism,  each  run- 
ning into  the  other  even  as  they  coexisted  in  his 
thought.  Wherever  else  he  looked,  he  always  had 
an  eye  open  to  nature.  His  argument  is  keen, 
comprehensive,  and  well  buttressed  by  Scripture, 
but  there  is  an  excess  of  a  priori  speculation,  and 
a  somewhat  too  easy  dealing  with  questions  about 
which  little  was  known  at  that  time  and  hardly 
more  at  present.  But  within  certain  limits  his 
contention  has  weight,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that 
it  has  enough  of  unquestioned  truth  to  render  it 
of  immense  importance,  both  speculatively  and 
practically.  It  is  along  such  lines  that  thought 
now  runs. 

In  the  second  part,  which  pertains  to  mode  of 
Christian  nurture,  the  treatise  loses  its  theological 
and  disputative  character,  and  wears  a  psychologi- 
cal cast.  But  these  characteristics  sink  out  of 
sight  under  its  overwhelming  practicalness.  With 
some  slight  editing,  it  might  again  be  made  a  hand- 
book on  Christian  training.  When  first  published, 
it  was  needed  to  correct  false  methods  of  Christian 
nurture ;  to-day,  it  is  needed  to  supply  a  lack,  and 
to  stimulate  thought  in  right  directions.  The  first 
chapter  of  part  second  discusses  the  question, 
"  When  and  where,  at  what  point,  and  how  early, 
does  the  office  of  a  genuine  nurture  begin  ? " 
Little  could  be  added  to-day  to  the  force  of  his 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  85 

discussion  except  stronger  emphasis.  Starting 
with  "a  kind  of  ante-natal  nurture,"  he  asserts 
that  "  the  nurture  of  the  soul  and  character  is  to 
begin  just  where  the  nurture  of  the  body  begins," 
and  then  makes  the  distinction,  now  so  prominent 
in  pedagogic  studies,  between  "  the  age  of  impres- 
sions and  the  age  of  tuitional  influences."  He 
sharpens  the  distinction  by  connecting  the  former 
with  "the  will  of  the  parent,"  and  so  proposes  the 
way  for  a  full  examination  of  the  reach  and  power 
of  "  early  impressions ;  "  and  concludes  by  saying 
that  "more  is  done,  or  lost  by  neglect  of  doing, 
on  a  child's  immortality  in  the  first  three  years  of 
his  life  than  in  all  his  years  of  discipline  after- 
ward." The  remaining  chapters  refer  to  "  Parental 
Qualifications,"  "  Family  Government,"  "  Holidays 
and  Sundays,"  "  Family  Prayers,"  and  kindred 
topics,  with  a  mingled  breadth,  subtilty,  strenu- 
ousness,  common  sense,  and  spirituality  that  put 
it  at  the  head  of  all  treatises  of  the  kind.  Now 
and  then  it  may  be  slightly  out  of  date  in  respect 
to  scientific  accuracy,  but  even  here  it  is  oftener 
prophetic  than  incorrect.  The  heavy  belaboring 
of  the  revival  system  is  no  longer  much  needed, 
but  the  main  body  of  the  book  is  one  of  the  richest 
treasures  in  religious  pedagogics  which  this  cen- 
tury can  offer  to  the  next.  Whatever  theology 
prevails  in  the  future,  this  treatise  represents  a 
standing  need  of  humanity,  and  its  lessons  are  so 
grounded  in  eternal  principles  and  unalterable 
facts  that  they  will   always  be  timely,  while  its 


86  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

form  should  make  it  a  classic.  In  its  theological 
significance  it  is  a  rejection  of  an  individualistic 
theory  of  the  church,  and,  incidentally,  of  its 
method  of  growth,  and  a  return  to  the  corporate 
theory  of  growth  by  nurture. 

We  cannot  better  close  this  chapter  than  by 
quoting  from  a  letter  written  to  one  of  his  children, 
as  showing  how  his  thought  and  the  yearning  love 
of  his  heart  sustained  each  other.  His  treatise 
carried  in  it  the  life  of  his  life :  — 

"  You  have  been  religiously  educated,  and  you 
are  come  now  to  an  age  when  you  must  begin  to 
be  more  responsible  to  yourself.  Our  prayer  for 
you  is,  every  day,  that  God  would  impart  his  grace 
to  you  and  draw  you  on  to  a  full  choice  of  himself, 
and  perform  the  good  work  which  we  trust  He  has 
begun  in  you.  This  would  complete  our  happiness 
in  you.  I  would  recommend  to  you  now  that  you 
set  before  you,  as  a  distinct  object,  the  preparing 
yourself  to  make  a  profession  of  the  Saviour. 
Make  this  a  distinct  object  of  thought  and  of 
prayer  every  day.  And  do  not  inquire  so  much 
what  you  are,  whether  truly  a  Christian  in  heart 
or  not,  as  how  you  may  come  into  the  full  Chris- 
tian spirit,  to  become  unselfish,  to  have  a  distinct 
and  abiding  love  to  Christ.  Unite  yourself  to 
Christ  for  life,  and  try  to  receive  his  beautiful  and 
loving  spirit.  You  will  find  much  darkness  in 
you,  but  Christ  will  give  you  light.  Your  sins 
will  trouble  you,  but  Christ  will  take  away  your 
sins  and  give  you  peace.     Pray  God,  also,  to  give 


CHRISTIAN  NURTURE  87 

you  his  spirit,  and  do  not  doubt  that  his  spirit 
will  help  you  through  all  difficulties.  In  all  your 
duties  and  studies,  endeavor  to  do  them  for  God, 
and  so  as  to  please  Him.  Make  this,  too,  your 
pleasure,  for  assuredly  it  will  be  the  highest  plea- 
sure. It  may  not  so  appear  at  first,  but  it  will  be 
so  very  soon.  Nothing,  you  will  see  in  a  moment, 
can  yield  so  sweet  a  pleasure  as  the  love  and  pur- 
suit of  excellence,  especially  that  excellence  which 
consists  in  a  good  and  right  heart  before  God. 
And  you  will  be  more  likely  to  love  this  work  and 
have  success  in  it,  if  you  set  before  you  some  fixed 
object,  such  as  I  have  proposed. 

a  "We  gave  you  to  God  in  your  childhood,  and 
now  it  belongs  to  you  to  thank  God  for  the  good 
we  have  sought  to  do  for  you,  and  try  to  fulfill  our 
kindness  by  assuming  for  yourself  what  we  pro- 
mised for  you." 


CHAPTER  VI 
RECEPTION  OF  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE 


"  I  do  not  see  how  we  can  rest  content  with  any  conception  of 
the  system  of  Providence  which  does  not  take  in  the  case  of 
young  children.  .  .  .  And  yet  one  searches  in  vain  through  many 
an  elaborate  treatise  on  both  the  temporal  and  spiritual  govern- 
ment of  God  for  a  single  chapter  —  yea,  a  single  page  —  in  elu- 
cidation of  this  momentous  subject.  The  children,  that  is,  an 
immense  majority  of  the  human  race,  are  virtually  left  out  of 
account,  as  if  they  were  not  included  in  the  divine  plan.  .  .  . 
Many  of  the  theologians  seem  to  be  strangely  unconscious  that, 
if  really  immortal,  the  problem  of  their  spiritual  being,  here  and 
hereafter,  must  needs  involve  fundamental  principles  of  the 
divine  system.  A  theodicy  that  shall  meet  the  claims  of  Chris- 
tian thought,  and  satisfy  the  cravings  of  the  Christian  heart,  or 
charm  to  silence  its  doubts  and  fears,  must  vindicate  the  ways  of 
Providence  toward  little  children  as  well  as  toward  the  full- 
grown  men  and  women."  —  Professor  George  L.  Prentiss, 
D.  D.,  "Infant  Salvation  and  its  Theological  Bearings,"  Presby- 
terian Review,  July,  1883. 


CHAPTER  VI 

RECEPTION  OF   CHRISTIAN   NURTURE 

It  is  not  strange  that  "  Christian  Nurture  "  met 
with  a  stout  resistance.  In  its  inmost  meaning 
it  supplanted  a  theory  of  church  life  which  had 
been  slowly  elaborated  by  a  process  evidently  one 
of  improvement  and  attended  with  good  results. 
Not  to  have  resisted  would  have  been  a  surrender 
of  a  self -witnessing  spiritual  life.  The  later  New 
England  theology,  especially  as  elaborated  by  the 
New  Haven  divines,  represented  not  merely  a 
speculative  system,  but  a  moral  force  of  unimpeach- 
able value.  It  stood  for  most  of  the  good  that 
the  churches  were  doing  at  the  time.  Bushnell  had 
no  thought  of  displacing  it  as  a  whole,  and  even 
found  a  qualified  place  for  revivalism.  Neverthe- 
less, his  contention  went  beyond  all  such  qualifi- 
cations, and  called  for  a  method  of  church  growth 
and  a  theology  quite  unlike  that  about  him.  He 
virtually  recurred  to  the  historic  churches,  and 
broke  with  a  provincial  system  which,  in  aiming  to 
secure  certain  invaluable  truths,  had  suffered  them 
to  grow  into  proportions  so  wide  as  to  exclude 
even  greater  truths. 

From  their  own  standpoint  his  critics  were  right, 
and  he  had  no  justification  but  such  as  was  to  be 


92  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

drawn  from  profounder  views  both  of  doctrine  and 
method.  But  from  another  point  of  view,  it  is 
strange  that  a  book  so  bathed  in  household  love, 
a  very  cradle-song  of  Christian  faith,  should  have 
become  the  occasion  of  a  theological  controversy 
of  the  proverbial  bitterness.  It  is  the  redeeming 
feature  of  such  controversies  that  time  soon  ex- 
tracts their  sting,  and  frowns  are  exchanged  for 
smiles.  Some  greater  truth  or  wider  generaliza- 
tion comes  into  the  field,  and  the  debate  dies  out. 
For  a  while  dignity  suffers  some  discomposure,  but 
it  is  a  mercifid  arrangement  of  Providence  that  in 
dialectic  controversy  numerous  ways  of  escape  are 
left  open  by  which  the  defeated  party  can  retreat 
with  self-respect  and  even  with  a  show  of  victory. 
Few  people  in  New  England  would  now  hesitate  to 
say  that  it  is  wise  to  train  children  into  the  Chris- 
tian life  very  much  as  Bushnell  suggests  ;  and  the 
greater  part  would  wonder  where  the  theological 
difficulties  came  in. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  the  book  was  an 
article  in  the  "  New  Englander  "  which  jsrovoked 
some  dissent  in  the  Ministerial  Association  of 
which  Bushnell  was  a  member,  and  he  was  invited 
to  prepare  a  paper  on  the  subject  of  Christian 
training.  He  brought  before  it  two  sermons, 
which  not  only  provoked  no  dissent,  but  led  to  a 
request  for  publication.  The  manuscript  was 
offered  anonymously  to  the  Massachusetts  Sunday 
School  Society,  and  was  examined  by  the  committee 
on  publication,  who  individually  approved,  but  hesi- 


RECEPTION  OF  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE      93 

tated  over  printing  it,  lest  the  novelty  of  its  views 
might  stir  up  controversy.  After  some  revision 
and  a  delay  of  six  months,  it  was  published,  and 
seemed  about  to  awaken  interest  without  alarm 
until  a  letter,  having  the  sanction  of  the  North 
Association  of  Hartford  County,  appeared,  charg- 
ing that  the  discourses  were  full  of  "  dangerous 
tendencies."  This  charge  without  doubt  origi- 
nated in  the  Theological  Institute  of  Connecticut, 
an  institution  that  had  been  organized  in  1834, 
with  the  distinct  purpose  of  controverting  the 
doctrinal  teaching  of  the  Divinity  School  in  New 
Haven.  Its  founding  reveals  the  intensity  of  feel- 
ing over  the  differences  in  opinion,  and  scarcely 
more ;  the  differences  themselves  were  so  slight 
that  they  hardly  admitted  of  definition.  This 
conflict  that  raged  for  twenty  or  more  years  be- 
tween these  schools  was  a  repetition  of  what  has 
always  been  going  on,  —  bitter  debate  in  one  age 
over  questions  that  die  out  in  the  next.  The  uni- 
versality of  the  process  seems  to  indicate  a  law 
that  should  temper  our  judgment  of  it ;  it  is,  per- 
haps, the  price  paid  for  exact  thought. 

Bushnell  from  the  first  awoke  suspicion ;  he 
struck  an  unfamiliar  note,  and  the  East  Windsor 
brethren  not  only  were  quick  to  detect  it,  but  to 
identify  it  with  the  New  Haven  School.  No  mis- 
take could  have  been  greater.  So  far  as  theology 
was  concerned, "  Christian  Nurture  "  was  far  enough 
from  either ;  but  if  a  comparison  were  made,  it 
leaned  quite    as   much  toward  East  Windsor  as 


94  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

toward  New  Haven.  In  fact,  had  the  former  been 
true  to  the  earlier  school  which  it  championed,  it 
might  have  claimed  the  treatise  as  against  New 
Haven,  appropriating  its  "  older  orthodoxy,"  and 
condoning  its  departure  from  it.  But  at  heart 
the  book  was  with  neither,  and  each  opened  fire 
on  it,  —  the  pamphlet,  "  What  does  Dr.  Bushnell 
Mean?"  having  come  from  New  Haven.  Dr. 
Tyler's  criticism  was  followed  by  a  juster  and  far 
abler  review  by  Dr.  Charles  Hodge,  of  Princeton, 
whose  chief  objection  was  that  "  he  has  not  rested 
them  (the  facts  of  conversion  by  means  of  Chris- 
tian nurture)  upon  the  covenant  and  promise  of 
God,  but  resolved  the  whole  matter  into  organic 
laws,  explaining  away  both  depravity  and  grace," 
and  presented  the  whole  subject  "  in  a  naturalistic 
attitude."  2  That  is,  Bushnell  struck  the  modern 
note  which  it  was  the  boast  of  Princeton  at  that 
time  not  to  have  heard.  A  still  abler  review  came 
from  Dr.  J.  W.  Nevin,  of  the  German  Reformed 
Church,2  more  sympathetic,  but  still  critical  at 
the  same  point ;  namely,  the  tone  of  naturalism 
running  through  the  book.  Both  reviews,  however, 
were  one  with  him  as  to  the  corporate  nature  of 
the  church,  and  furnished  a  contrast  with  his  New 
England  critics,  who  had  so  wholly  surrendered 
to  individualism  that  the  other  seemed  hardly  less 
than  heretical  in  itself.  These  and  other  criti- 
cisms, many  of  them  personal  and  hectoring  in 

1  Biblical  Repertory  and  Princeton  Review,  p.  27, 1847. 

2  Weekly  Messenger,  Chambersburg,  Pa.,  1847.     Four  articles. 


RECEPTION  OF  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE      95 

tone,  betrayed  Bushnell  into  a  reply  which  he 
styled  "  An  Argument  for  Discourses  on  Christian 
Nurture,"  and  published  under  the  title,  "Views 
of  Christian  Nurture  and  of  Subjects  Adjacent 
Thereto." J  The  wisdom  of  this  reply  has  been 
doubted,  and  in  fact  it  was  regretted  by  Bushnell 
himself,  not  because  he  did  not  consider  the  de- 
fense sound,  but  because  of  his  relentless  severity 
in  dealing  with  his  theological  neighbors.  His 
attack  was  just,  but  it  was  a  descent.  An  able 
defense  of  his  positions  was  mingled  with  expos- 
ures of  personal  animosity  and  intellectual  weak- 
ness in  his  critics  such  as  all  strong  men  are  liable 
to  encounter,  but  which  wise  men  generally  pass 
by.  But  if  measured  by  a  lower  standard,  it  was 
magnificent  fighting,  spirited  but  good-tempered, 
and  leaving  nothing  more  to  be  said  on  the  subject. 
It  cleared  a  long-standing  score  that  had  been  grow- 
ing for  years,  and  brought  both  sides  fully  into  the 
light.  Whether  wise  or  not,  if  it  did  not  lessen 
attacks  in  the  future,  it  kept  his  critics  to  the 
proper  subject  of  criticism. 

We  cannot  pass  by  "  Christian  Nurture  "  as  it 
appears  in  the  later  full  edition  without  once 
more  calling  attention  to  it  as  an  achievement  in 
the  world  of  New  England  theology.  In  point 
of  influence,  it  is  second  only  to  that  of  Edwards 
in  which  he  ended  the  union  of  Church  and  State 
by  reassertion  of  man's  individual  relations  to 
God,  an  achievement  that  required  another  of  an 
1  Edward  Hunt,  Hartford,  1847.     (Out  of  print.) 


96  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

opposite  nature  to  mark  the  time  of  religious 
progress.  The  individual  and  the  corporate  will 
always  call  for  each  other,  as  deep  calls  unto  deep. 
The  greatness  of  the  book  as  an  intellectual 
achievement  has  not  had  full  recognition,  chiefly 
because  its  theological  surroundings  have  not  been 
understood.  It  is  not  in  its  essence  a  discovery,  for 
its  main  idea  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  the  historic 
religions.  It  is  doubtful  if  Bushnell  at  first  clearly 
recognized  it  as  a  return  to  former  methods  except 
in  some  general  way.  It  is  well  that  he  did  not, 
for  a  formal  return  was  neither  needed  nor  possible. 
Nor  was  it  a  conscious  prophecy  of  the  method 
of  religious  culture  that  was  about  to  come  in ;  he 
worked  at  closer  hand.  The  book  sprang  out  of 
an  imperative  sense  of  what  needed  to  be  done ; 
and  the  fact  that  it  turned  out  to  be,  in  effect,  a 
semi-repudiation  of  the  environing  theology,  was 
an  incident  and  not  due  to  purpose.  It  was  not 
an  attack,  but  it  undermined  and  displaced,  and 
prepared  the  way  for  that  which  was  to  come. 
For  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  conception  of 
spiritual  regeneration,  and  of  its  means  and  meth- 
ods, which  prevailed  at  the  time  has  largely  passed 
away,  and  that  everything  except  the  simple  need 
of  it  has  yielded  to  a  conception  based  upon  and 
composed  chiefly  of  religious  nurture.  The  vari- 
ous theories  of  depravity,  of  the  will,  of  divine 
grace,  of  the  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  sanctifi- 
cation,  have  either  disappeared,  or  been  so  altered 
as  hardly  to  be  recognized.     In  its  place  are  con- 


RECEPTION   OF  CHRISTIAN  NURTURE     97 

ceptions  of  human  nature  and  its  moral  condition, 
of  heredity  and  environment,  of  sin,  of  the  will, 
of  moral  cidture  and  religious  experience,  which  are 
most  unlike  those  they  have  displaced.  Biblical 
interpretation,  psychology,  and  the  closer  study 
of  life  in  all  its  departments  are  forcing  theology 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  Christian  character  is 
chiefly  a  matter  of  Christian  nurture.  A  uni- 
versal truth,  supported  by  universal  analogies,  is 
coming  into  view,  and  is  already  in  process  of 
realization,  —  an  ancient  truth,  but  reappearing  in 
the  light  of  modern  thought  and  exact  science. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE 


"  There  can  be  no  exercise  in  the  whole  business  of  instruction 
more  useful  to  the  mind  than  the  analysis  of  sentences  in  the 
concentrated  light  of  grammar  and  logic.  It  brings  one  into 
the  sanctuary  of  human  thought.  All  else  is  hut  standing  in  the 
outer  court.  He  who  is  without  may  indeed  offer  incense,  but 
he  who  penetrates  within,  worships  and  adores.  It  is  here  that 
the  man  of  science,  trained  to  close  thought  and  clear  vision,  sur- 
veys the  various  objects  of  his  study  with  a  more  expanded  view, 
and  a  more  discriminating  mind.  It  is  here  that  the  interpreter, 
accustomed  to  the  force  and  freshness  of  natural  language,  is 
prepared  to  explain  God's  revealed  word  with  more  power  and 
accuracy.  It  is  here  that  the  orator  learns  to  wield  with  a  heavier 
arm  the  weapons  of  his  warfare.  It  is  here  that  every  one  who 
loves  to  think  beholds  the  deep  things  of  the  human  spirit,  and 
learns  to  regard  with  holy  reverence  the  sacred  symbols  of 
human  thought."  —  Professor  JoaiAH  Willakd  Gibes,  Christian 
Spectator,  1837,  vol.  ix.  p.  120. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THEORY   OF   LANGUAGE 

Nearly  every  undertaking  of  Bushnell  in  the- 
ology was  an  effort  to  escape  some  sort  of  restric- 
tion. He  found  himself  in  a  very  narrow  world, 
—  strong  and  intense  in  its  piety,  not  without 
considerable  learning,  seeing  far  on  certain  lines 
but  blind  on  others.  It  was  shut  off  from  the 
larger  currents  of  thought  by  its  wide  separation 
from  the  old  world.  Its  great  men  were  solitary 
thinkers,  who  spun  their  systems  with  but  little 
mutual  criticism  or  consultation,  dominated  by  one 
great  master.  The  dialectic  habit  with  such  men 
necessarily  led  to  a  hard  and  rigid  use  of  language. 
Their  strength  lay  in  definition  and  logic,  which 
were  often  used  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  a  cor- 
ral rather  than  a  teaching.1 

The  thing  insisted  on  in  their  frequent  contro- 
versies was  definition.  The  closer  it  was  made  the 
sharper  grew  the  debate,  since  one  or  the  other 

1  The  pupils  of  Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor  remember  nothing  in  his 
lectures  more  clearly  than  his  scorn  of  those  writers  on  theology 
■who  were  "  too  lazy  to  make  definitions,"  which  he  declared  to  he 
"  the  severest  labor  of  the  human  mind."  This  is  undoubtedly 
the  case  if  the  definitions  are  expected  to  compass  the  truths  of 
theology.  It  was  chiefly  at  this  point  that  Bushnell  revolted 
against  this  master  in  dialectics. 


102  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

of  the  combatants  was  sure  to  discover,  through 
some  unguarded  loophole,  truth  lying  outside  of 
the  definition  that  called  for  re-definition.  Thus 
an  endless  process  was  established,  consisting  in 
efforts  to  bring  the  infinite  within  the  finite.  It 
was  given  to  Bushnell  to  have  a  clear  sight  of  the 
truth  beyond  the  finite  boundaries.  He  saw  that 
the  greater  part  of  theology  lay  in  that  region, 
and  that  it  could  not  be  reached  or  expressed 
except  by  breaking  through  or  overleaping  these 
verbal  limitations.  In  his  opinion  there  could  be 
no  justification  of  definition  without  first  entering 
into  an  analysis  of  language  itself,  with  a  view  of 
finding  out  its  function  and  scope  as  a  medium 
between  the  mind  and  the  world  of  sense.  He 
could  not  advance  one  step  in  the  discussion  of 
theological  themes  with  the  expectation  of  being 
understood,  unless  he  could  in  some  way  break  up 
or  get  over  this  hard  literalism  and  make  his  read- 
ers feel  the  meaning  that  really  lies  in  and  behind 
the  words.  Had  he  lived  a  half  century  later,  he 
would  have  had  comparatively  little  need  to  ex- 
plain himself.  Language  is  regarded  to-day  very 
much  as  he  conceived  it,  while  Biblical  criticism 
and  a  more  rational  theory  of  inspiration  have 
removed  from  the  field  of  debate  certain  parts  of 
Scripture  that  were  then  chief  factors  in  it.  But 
Bushnell  did  not  have  the  advantage  of  the  later 
criticism,  and  himself  needed  a  personal  deliver- 
ance from  interpretations  that  were  intolerable  to 
him.    He  chose  what  seemed  to  him  the  only  thor- 


THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE  103 

ough  method ;  namely,  an  examination  of  the  na- 
ture of  language  itself.1 

But  there  were  still  stronger  reasons,  which  will 
appear  in  the  following  quotations  :  — 

"  We  find,  then,  that  every  language  contains 
two  distinct  departments :  the  physical  depart- 
ment,—  that  which  provides  names  for  things; 
and  the  intellectual  department,  —  that  which 
provides  names  for  thought  and  spirit.  In  the 
former,  names  are  simple  representatives  of  things, 
which  even  the  animals  may  learn.     In  the  latter, 

1  "  It  is  remarkable  that  Dr.  Bushnell,  whose  studies  kept 
him  wholly  ignorant  of  Kant,  is  nevertheless  dealing  with  Kant's 
problem  in  his  rather  diffuse  Dissertation  on  Language,  and  in  his 
far  clearer,  compaeter,  and  finer  production,  Our  Gospel  a  Gift  to 
the  Imagination.  He  saw,  and  it  is  a  remarkable  witness  to  his 
genius,  that  thought  is  inseparable  from  sense-forms,  and  so- 
called  abstract  thinking  is  but  thought  with  the  sensuous  accom- 
paniment attenuated  to  the  last  degree."  (Dr.  George  A.  Gordon, 
The  Christ  of  To-day,  p.  287.) 

Kant  says  the  difficulty  in  reaching  a  purely  non-sensuous 
theory  of  the  universe  lies  in  the  constitution  of  the  human  mind 
as  compounded  of  sense  and  intellect.  Bushnell  says  the  diffi- 
culty lies  in  language,  —  the  instrument  of  the  mind.  They  face 
the  same  problem,  but  Bushnell  escapes  from  it  by  contending 
that  the  constitution  of  the  mind  is  given  in  language  as  no- 
where else,  and  that  though  it  is  a  sense-form,  it  represents  a 
spiritual  meaning  to  which  it  is  essentially  allied.  The  usual 
criticism  of  Bushnell  is  that  he  puts  the  limitation  in  language 
rather  than  in  the  power  of  the  mind  to  conceive  the  infinite 
realities  of  religion,  —  in  utterance  rather  than  in  conception. 
Had  the  point  occurred  to  him,  it  is  possible  that  he  would  have 
hesitated  to  place  the  limitation  in  the  unchanging  nature  of 
mind,  when  it  could  justly  be  put  upon  the  instrument  of  expres- 
sion that  can  be  made  fuller  and  more  exact,  as  the  world,  which 
is  but  a  symbol  of  thought,  becomes  more  clearly  understood. 
One  seems  like  a  barring  of  the  gate  ;  the  other  only  some  diffi- 
culty in  getting  to  it. 


104  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

the  names  of  things  are  used  as  representatives  of 
thought,  and  cannot,  therefore,  be  learned  save 
by  beings  of  intelligence  —  (intus  lego}  —  that  is, 
beings  who  can  read  the  inner  sense,  or  receive 
the  inner  contents  of  words  ;  beings  in  whom  the 
Logos  of  the  creation  finds  a  correspondent  logos, 
or  reason,  to  receive  and  employ  the  types  it  offers 
in  their  true  power  (p.  24).  ...  In  this  view, 
which  it  is  not  rash  to  believe  will  some  time  be 
fully  established,  the  outer  world  is  seen  to  be  a 
vast  menstruum  of  thought  or  intelligence.  There 
is  a  logos  in  the  forms  of  things,  by  which  they 
are  prepared  to  serve  as  types  or  images  of  what  is 
inmost  in  our  souls  ;  and  then  there  is  a  logos  of 
construction  in  the  relations  of  space,  the  position, 
qualities,  connections,  and  predicates  of  things, 
by  which  they  are  framed  into  grammar.  In  one 
word,  the  outer  world,  which  envelops  our  being, 
is  itself  language,  the  power  of  all  language."  1 

..."  Since  all  words,  but  such  as  relate  to 
necessary  truths,  are  inexact  representations  of 
thought,  mere  types  or  analogies,  or,  where  the 
types  are  lost  beyond  recovery,  only  proximate 
expressions  of  the  thoughts  named ;  it  follows 
that  language  will  be  ever  trying  to  mend  its 
own  deficiencies,  by  multiplying  its  forms  of  re- 

1  Bushnell  is  throughout  this  essay  greatly  indebted  to  Pro- 
fessor Josiah  W.  Gibbs,  the  instructor  in  Biblical  literature  in  the 
Yale  Divinity  School  while  he  was  a  student.  He  recognizes  the 
indebtedness  in  a  tone  of  gratitude  and  reverence  shown  to  no 
other  writer  except  Coleridge.  The  article  from  which  he  quotes 
is  in  The  Christian  Spectator,  vol.  ix. 


THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE  105 

presentation.  As,  too,  the  words  made  use  of 
generally  carry  something  false  with  them,  as 
well  as  something  true,  associating  form  with  the 
truths  represented,  when  really  there  is  no  form ; 
it  will  also  be  necessary,  on  this  account,  to  multi- 
ply words  or  figures,  and  thus  to  present  the  sub- 
ject on  opposite  sides  or  many  sides.  Thus,  as 
form  battles  form,  and  one  form  neutralizes  an- 
other, all  the  insufficiencies  of  words  are  filled  out, 
the  contrarieties  liquidated,  and  the  mind  settles 
into  a  full  and  just  apprehension  of  the  pure  spir- 
itual truth.  Accordingly  we  never  come  so  near 
to  a  truly  well-rounded  view  of  any  truth  as  when 
it  is  offered  paradoxically ;  that  is,  under  contra- 
dictions ;  that  is,  under  two  or  more  dictions, 
which,  taken  as  dictions,  are  contrary  one  to  the 
other"  (p.  55). 

"  The  views  of  language  and  interpretation  1 
have  here  offered  suggest  the  very  great  difficulty, 
if  not  impossibility,  of  mental  science  and  religious 
dogmatism.  In  all  such  uses,  or  attempted  uses, 
the  effort  is  to  make  language  answer  a  purpose 
that  is  against  its  nature.  The  'winged  words' 
are  required  to  serve  as  beasts  of  burden ;  or, 
what  is  no  better,  to  forget  their  poetic  life  as 
messengers  of  the  air,  and  stand  still,  fixed  upon 
the  ground,  as  wooden  statues  of  truths.  .  .  . 

"  Can  there  be  produced,  in  human  language, 
a  complete  and  proper  Christian  theology ;  can 
the  Christian  truth  be  offered  in  the  moulds  of 
any  dogmatic  statement  ?     What  is  the  Christian 


100  HORACE   BUSIINELL 

truth?  Preeminently  and  principally,  it  is  the 
expression  of  God,  —  God  coming  into  expression 
through  histories  and  rites,  through  an  incarnation, 
and  through  language,  —  in  one  syllable,  by  the 
Word.  The  endeavor  is,  by  means  of  expression, 
and  under  the  laws  of  expression,  to  set  forth 
God,  —  his  providence  and  his  government,  and 
what  is  more  and  higher  than  all,  God's  own  feel- 
ing, his  truth,  love,  justice,  compassion.  .  .  . 

"There  is,  however,  one  hope  for  mental  and 
religious  truth  and  their  final  settlement,  which 
I  confess  I  see  but  dimly,  and  can  but  faintly 
express  or  indicate.  It  is  that  physical  science, 
leading  the  way,  setting  outward  things  in  their 
true  proportions,  opening  up  their  true  contents, 
revealing  their  genesis  and  final  causes  and  laws, 
and  weaving  all  into  the  unity  of  a  real  universe, 
will  so  perfect  our  knowledges  and  conceptions 
of  them  that  we  can  use  them,  in  the  second  de- 
partment of  language,  with  more  exactness.  .  .  . 
And  then  language  will  be  as  much  more  full  and 
intelligent,  as  it  has  more  of  God's  intelligence, 
in  the  system  of  nature,  imparted  to  its  symbols. 
For  undoubtedly  the  whole  universe  of  nature  is  a 
perfect  analogon  of  the  whole  universe  of  thought 
or  spirit.  Therefore,  as  nature  becomes  truly  a 
universe  only  through  science  revealing  its  univer- 
sal laws,  the  true  universe  of  thought  and  spirit 
cannot  sooner  be  conceived  "  *  (p.  78). 

1  Bushnell  here  anticipates  with  striking  accuracy  the  fourth 
chapter  of  Mr.  John  Fiske's  Through  Nature  to  God,  on  "  The 
Dramatic  Unity  of  Nature." 


THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE  107 

We  have  made  this  quotation  not  only  because 
it  illustrates  BushnelTs  range  in  a  high  realm  of 
thought,  but  because  it  is,  as  his  biographer  says, 
"  the  key  to  Horace  Bushnell." 

It  was  not  a  theory  brought  from  without  and 
adopted  as  best  suited  to  his  purpose,  but  was  a 
reflection  of  the  natural  play  of  his  mind.  It  is 
not  only  the  key,  but  it  shows  in  what  a  natural 
way  he  fell  in  with  the  Greek  use  of  the  Logos, 
from  which  he  never  wholly  departed,  however 
heavy  the  stress  of  criticism. 

His  theory  seems  fatal  to  theology  as  an  exact 
science,  and  he  presses  it  to  that  conclusion.  We 
shall  let  him  make  his  explanation  in  his  own 
words.  His  friend,  Dr.  William  W.  Patton,  gives 
this  account  of  a  conversation  with  him,  at  the 
time  when  he  was  under  heavy  criticism  for  the 
theological  opinions  of  the  book  "  God  in  Christ :  " 

"  Dr.  Bushnell  and  myself  were  riding  together  to 
a  meeting  of  the  Hartford  Central  Association,  and 
the  conversation  turned  on  theological  discussions. 
'  Why  is  it,'  said  I,  '  that  you  complain  that  you 
are  so  generally  misunderstood?  Where  you  are 
criticised  you  say  that  the  critics  misapprehend 
your  positions ;  and  they  reply  that  you  ought  to 
express  yourself  more  clearly.  Why  can  you  not 
do  so  ?  '  His  answer  was  substantially  this  :  '  It 
is  because  of  the  different  views  which  they  and 
I  take  of  the  human  soul  and  of  the  relation  of 
language  to  spiritual  truth.  They  succeed  easily 
in  so  expressing  their  ideas  as  to  be  understood  by 


108  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

their  readers ;  but  it  is  because  they  deal  with 
subjects  mechanically,  and  not  according  to  nature. 

There,  for   instance,  is  Dr.  ,  my  customary 

assailant.  He  writes  about  the  human  spirit  as 
if  it  were  a  machine  under  the  laws  of  mechanics ; 
and,  of  course,  what  he  says  is  perfectly  intelli- 
gible, like  any  other  treatise  on  matter ;  only  what 
he  says  is  not  true  !  But  I  conceive  of  the  soul 
in  its  living  nature,  —  as  free,  and  intelligent, 
and  sensitive  ;  as  under  vital  and  not  mechanical 
laws.  Language,  too,  for  that  reason,  is  not  so 
much  descriptive  as  suggestive,  being  figurative 
throughout,  even  where  it  deals  with  spiritual 
truth.  Therefore,  an  experience  is  needed  to  inter- 
pret words.' " 

It  was  by  this  gate  that  he  went  out  from  the 
world  about  him  into  the  world  of  spiritual  reality 
and  freedom  where  his  work  lay.  It  must  not  be 
supposed  that  he  abjured  theology  as  a  science 
because  he  refused  to  be  bound  by  definition,  nor 
that  he  slighted  reason  because  he  set  aside  the 
forms  of  logic.  He  simply  refused  to  put  infinite 
things  into  finite  forms  as  wholly  containing  them. 
He  protested  against  treating  thought  and  spirit 
as  measurable  by  sense  ;  he  asserted  that  spiritual 
and  moral  realities  lie  behind  language,  and  that 
words  have  their  origin  in  these  realities,  though 
they  do  not  define  them,  but  only  suggest  their 
scope  and  significance.  It  is  under  such  a  con- 
ception of  language  that  he  explains  his  use  of 
creeds.     Pie  likes  them  so  well  that  he  says  he  is 


THEORY  OF  LANGUAGE  109 

"  ready  to  accept  as  great  a  number  as  fall  in  my 
way." 

If  a  fundamental  criticism  were  to  be  made  of 
his  entire  work  in  theology,  it  would  be  made  at 
the  point  of  this  theory,  for  it  covers  the  whole  of 
it.  He  may  at  times  disagree  with  himself,  and 
he  often  goes  far  afield,  but  he  always  comes  back 
to  this  conception  of  language  for  explanation  or 
defense.  Whether  true  or  false,  it  runs  through- 
out his  theology,  and  makes  it  substantially  a 
unit.  Stated  briefly,  it  was  an  exchange  of  defini- 
tion for  expression.  His  entrance  into  the  com- 
pany of  New  England  theologians  with  such  a 
theory  was  like  Copernicus  appearing  among  the 
Ptolemaists. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
"GOD  IN  CHRIST" 


"  But  even  less  than  literature  and  the  Church  and  criticism  can 
theology  remain  unaffected  hy  this  return,  as  it  were,  into  His* 
very  presence.  We  all  feel  the  distance  placed  by  fifty  years  of 
the  most  radical  and  penetrating  critical  discussions  between  us 
and  the  older  theology,  and  as  the  distance  widens,  the  theology 
that  then  reigned  grows  less  credible,  because  less  relevant  to 
living  mind.  Does  this  mean  that  the  days  of  definite  theological 
beliefs  are  over,  or  not,  rather,  that  the  attempt  ought  to  be  made 
to  restate  them  in  more  living  and  relevant  terms  ?  One  thing 
seems  clear  :  if  a  Christian  theology  means  a  theology  of  Christ, 
at  once  concerning  Him  and  derived  from  Him,  then  to  construct 
one  ought,  because  of  our  greater  knowledge  of  Him  and  His 
history,  to  be  more  possible  to-day  than  at  any  previous  moment. 
And  if  this  is  clear,  then  the  most  provisional  attempt  at  per- 
forming the  possible  is  more  dutiful  than  the  selfish  and  idle 
acquiescence  that  would  simply  leave  the  old  theology  and  tho 
new  criticism  standing  side  by  side,  unrelated  and  unreconciled." 
—  Professor  A.  M.  Fairbairn,  D.  D.,  The  Place  of  Christ  in 
Modern  Theology,  p.  296. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

"GOD   EST    CHRIST" 

"The  year  1848  was  the  central  point  in  the 
life  of  Horace  Bushnell.  It  was  a  year  of  great 
experiences,  great  thoughts,  great  labors."  So  his 
wife  writes  in  his  "  Biography."  The  outcome  was 
the  volume  "  God  in  Christ."  The  order  in  this 
category  is  rightly  given.  Whatever  came  from 
him  was  first  the  result  of  experience.  He  was 
not  chiefly  a  speculator  in  the  world  of  thought, 
nor  a  dreamer  in  a  world  of  visions,  but  a  practical 
man  in  a  real  world.  The  death  of  his  child  five 
years  before  had  not  ceased  to  bear  fruit  in  revela- 
tions of  the  fatherhood  of  God.  "  He  took  my 
son  to  his  own  more  fatherly  bosom,  and  revealed 
in  my  bosom  the  same  expectation  and  faith  of  his 
own  eternal  Son."  He  read  the  Life  of  Madame 
Guyon,  and  Upham's  "  Interior  Life,"  and  Fene- 
lon,  and  yielded  somewhat  to  a  mystical  wave  of 
thought  that  was  then  passing  over  New  England. 
He  touched  "  quietism,"  but  quickly  and  by  a 
necessity  of  his  nature  reacted  from  it,  yet  not 
without  retaining  something  of  its  value  in  the 
practical  world  where  he  belonged  and  worked. 
A  crisis  seems  to  have  been  reached  in  an  experi- 
ence described  as  follows  :  — 


114  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

"  On  an  early  morning  of  February,  his  wife 
awoke,  to  hear  that  the  light  they  had  waited  for, 
more  than  they  that  watch  for  the  morning,  had 
risen  indeed.  She  asked,  '  What  have  you  seen  ? ' 
He  replied,  '  The  gospel.'  It  came  to  him  at  last, 
after  all  his  thought  and  study,  not  as  something 
reasoned  out,  but  as  an  inspiration,  —  a  revelation 
from  the  mind  of  God  himself.  The  full  meaning 
of  his  answer  he  embodied  at  once  in  a  sermon 
on  '  Christ  the  Form  of  the  Soul,'  from  the  text, 
1  Until  Christ  be  formed  in  you.'  The  very  title 
of  this  sermon  expresses  his  spiritually  illuminated 
conception  of  Christ  as  the  indwelling,  formative 
life  of  the  soul,  the  new  creating  power  of  right- 
eousness for  humanity.  And  this  conception  was 
soon  after  more  adequately  set  forth  in  his  book, 
1  God  in  Christ.'  That  he  regarded  this  as  a  crisis 
in  his  spiritual  life  is  evident  from  his  not  infre- 
quent reference  to  it  among  his  Christian  friends." 

He  regarded  this  experience  as  a  "  personal 
discovery  of  Christ,  and  of  God  as  represented  in 
Him."  To  those  about  him  he  seemed  "  a  new 
man,  or,  rather,  the  same  man  with  a  heavenly 
investiture."  Or,  as  he  himself  explained  it :  "I 
seemed  to  pass  a  boundary.  I  had  never  been 
very  legal  in  my  Christian  life,  but  now  I  passed 
from  those  partial  seeings,  glimpses,  and  doubts, 
into  a  clearer  knowledge  of  God  and  into  his 
inspirations,  which  I  have  never  wholly  lost.  The 
change  was  into  faith,  —  a  sense  of  the  freeness  of 
God,  and  the  ease  of  approach  to  Him." 


"GOD  IN  CHRIST"  115 

He  at  once  moved  toward  expression.  The 
vision  must  be  translated  into  form,  its  implica- 
tions detected,  and  its  reasonableness  made  clear. 
The  reality  and  intensity  of  this  experience  must 
not  be  overlooked  as  one  reads  the  book  to  which 
it  gave  rise  and  the  criticism  that  followed.  More 
weight  must  be  attached  to  his  conclusions  than  if 
they  had  been  the  mere  fruit  of  reflection  ;  he  had 
felt  and  he  had  seen,  and  the  force  of  life  was 
behind  his  contentions.  It  was  then  that  he  began 
to  define  Christian  doctrine  as  "  formulated  Chris- 
tian experience." 

By  a  conjunction  of  events  that  seem  providen- 
tial, the  amplest  opportunity  was  offered  for  speak- 
ing on  the  subject  which  had  been  thus  opened  to 
him.  Almost  simultaneously  invitations  came  from 
the  Divinity  School  in  Cambridge,  then  unquali- 
fiedly Unitarian ;  from  the  Theological  Seminary 
at  Andover,  where  the  battle  with  Unitarianism 
had  been  fought,  and  from  the  Divinity  School  in 
New  Haven,  to  give  the  addresses  at  their  grad- 
uating exercises.  Bushnell  promptly  accepted 
these  invitations,  and  thus  reopened  the  question 
that  had  indeed  not  ceased  to  be  discussed.  But 
he  will  not  enter  into  the  wide  arena  as  a  debater 
of  the  old  fashion ;  he  will  go  as  a  mediator,  if 
at  all.  He  cannot  be  understood  at  this  period 
without  keeping  in  mind  the  spiritual  elevation 
and  intensity  that  possessed  him.  He  had  seen 
a  heavenly  vision,  and  his  obedience  to  it  was 
full  and  imperative.    This  experience  subdued  the 


116  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

polemic  and  revived  the  "vein  of  comprehensive- 
ness," which  was  more  congenial  to  him.  He  un- 
derstood the  relation  to  the  two  parties  into  which 
"  Christian  Nurture  "  had  brought  him,  and  stood 
between  them,  hoping  to  win  the  blessing  of  the 
peacemaker.  In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Bartol,  written  in 
1847,  when  under  accusation  of  heresy,  he  said: 
"  I  consider  myself  to  be  an  orthodox  man,  and  yet 
I  think  I  can  state  my  orthodox  faith  in  such  a 
way  that  no  serious  Unitarian  will  conflict  with  me, 
or  feel  that  I  am  beyond  the  terms  of  reason."  * 

The  first  of  the  sermons  forming  this  book  was 
preached  as  a  concio  ad  clerum,  in  the  North  now 
the  United  Church  in  New  Haven,  before  the  Gen- 
eral Association  of  Connecticut,  which  had  sug- 
gested to  him  as  a  subject  the  "  Divinity  of  Christ."  a 

As  this  discussion  became  the  ground  for  a  large 
part  of  the  criticism  he  afterward  encountered,  we 
give  its  main  points. 

1  This  was  before  Eev.  Theodore  Parker  had  preached  the 
sermon  at  West  Roxbury,  on  "  The  Transient  and  the  Permanent 
in  Religion,"  which  would  have  led  Bushnell  to  speak  less  hope- 
fully. 

2  The  writer,  then  a  student  in  college,  heard  the  sermon,  but 
recalls  little  except  the  appearance  of  the  preacher  and  the 
rhythmic  music  of  his  voice.  His  delivery  was  without  stress  or 
passion,  but  full  of  quiet  dignity,  and  serious  to  the  last  degree, 
—  almost  a  solitary  meditation  on  his  absorbing  theme.  But  the 
writer  remembers  two  remarks  made  at  the  close  of  the  ser- 
vice ;  one  from  a  saintly  woman,  —  ' '  They  have  taken  away  my 
Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they  have  laid  him."  Her  plaint 
found  an  echo  soon  after  in  the  pamphlet,  "  What  does  Dr. 
Bushnell  Mean?"  The  other  remark  came  from  a  theological 
student,  —  "I  could  kiss  the  soul  of  Dr.  Bushnell."  What  waa 
darkness  to  one  was  light  to  the  other. 


"GOD   IN  CHRIST"  117 

Taking  as  a  text  1  John  i.  2,  he  states  that  his 
purpose  is  to  show  that  "  the  reality  of  Christ  is 
God,"  and  that  the  term  "  was  manifested  "  covers 
and  contains  this  fact.  He  defines  the  divinity  of 
Christ  as  follows  :  "  He  is  in  such  a  sense  God,  or 
God  manifested,  that  the  unknown  term  of  his 
nature,  that  which  we  are  most  in  doubt  of,  and 
about  which  we  are  least  capable  of  any  positive 
information,  is  the  human  "  (p.  123).  It  should 
be  stated  at  the  outset  that  this  definition,  which 
has  been  and  is  still  more  criticised  than  any  other 
made  by  Bushnell  in  connection  with  the  trinity, 
was  due  in  part  to  the  fact  that  his  chief  per- 
plexity as  to  the  person  of  Christ  grew  out  of  the 
orthodox  doctrine  of  two  distinct  or  distinctly  active 
natures. 

The  tritheism  implied  in  three  metaphysical  per- 
sonalities in  the  essential  Godhead  was  equally 
perplexing.  In  order  to  escape  from  both,  he 
merged  the  personality  of  Christ  in  the  Father, 
and  so  escaped  the  first  difficulty.  By  refusing  to 
penetrate  the  interior  nature  of  God  he  escaped 
the  other.  His  method  may  not  be  correct,  and 
the  vagueness  of  his  treatment  of  the  humanity  of 
Christ  raises  the  suspicion  that  it  is  not,  but  it  is 
easy  to  see  why  he  followed  it :  he  saw  at  the 
time  no  other  way  of  escape. 

After  quoting  the  classical  texts  on  the  subject, 
he  infers  that  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  "  must  be 
because  the  divine  is  so  far  uppermost  in  him  as 
to  suspend  the  proper  manhood  of  his  person.     He 


118  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

does  not  any  longer  act  the  man  ;  practically  speak- 
ing, the  man  sleeps  in  him.  lie  acts  the  divine, 
not  the  human,  and  the  only  true  reality  in  him, 
as  far  as  moral  conduct  is  concerned,  is  the  divine" 
(p.  126). 

He  insists  with  passionate  reiteration  that  "  We 
want  Jesus  as  divine,  not  as  human.  .  .  .  God  is 
what  we  want,  not  a  man ;  God  revealed  through 
man,  that  we  may  see  his  heart,  and  hide  our  guilty 
nature  in  the  bosom  of  his  love  ;  God  so  identified 
with  our  race,  as  to  signify  the  possible  union 
and  eternal  identification  of  our  nature  with  his  " 

(P-  127). 

He  sees  no  difficulty  in  maintaining  the  essen- 
tial divinity  of  Christ  "  till  we  begin  to  speculate 
or  dogmatize  about  the  humanity,  or  find  ourselves 
in  contact  with  the  more  ^commonly  accepted  doc- 
trine of  trinity  "   (p.  129). 

This  accepted  doctrine  he  discusses  at  length, 
stating  it  as  follows :  — 

"  It  seems  to  be  agreed  by  the  orthodox,  that 
there  are  three  persons,  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost,  in  the  divine  nature.  These  three  persons, 
too,  are  generally  regarded  as  belonging,  not  to 
the  machma  Dei,  by  which  God  is  revealed,  but 
to  the  very  esse,  the  substantial  being  of  God,  or 
the  interior  contents  of  his  being.  They  are  de- 
clared to  be  equal ;  all  to  be  infinite  ;  all  to  be  the 
same  in  substance  ;  all  to  be  one.  ...  A  very  large 
portion  of  the  Christian  teachers  hold  three  real 
living  persons  in  the  interior  nature  of  God ;  that 


"GOD  IN  CHRIST"  119 

is,  three  consciousnesses,  wills,  hearts,  understand- 
ings "  (p.  130).i 

He  contends  that  this  is  contrary  to  "  the  very- 
idea  of  a  person  ;  as  well  hold  that  three  units  are 
one  unit."  After  describing  the  way  in  which  per- 
son is  used,  he  infers  that  the  result  is  "  three  vital 
personal  Gods,  and  back  of  them,  as  a  ground  of 
unity,  an  Inorganic  Deity,"  which  "  leaves  no  unity 
at  all."  Following  Schleiermacher,  he  contends 
that  under  a  metaphysical  tri-personality  "  the 
proper  deity  of  Christ  is  not  held."  "  He  is  be- 
gotten, sent,  supported,  directed  by  the  Father,  in 
such  a  sense  as  really  annihilates  his  deity." 

Having  thus  stated  his  objections  to  the  ortho- 
dox view  on  the  ground  of  its  tritheism,  he  raises 
the  question,  "  How  shall  we  resolve  the  divinity  or 
deity  of  Christ  .  .  .  so  as  to  make  it  consist  with 
the  proper  unity  of  God  ?  "  The  tenor  of  his 
answer  is  contained  in  the  following  passage  :  — 

"  The  trinity  we  seek  will  be  a  trinity  that  results 
of  necessity  from  the  revelation  of  God  to  man. 
I  do  not  undertake  to  fathom  the  interior  being 
of  God,  and  tell  how  it  is  composed.  That  is  a 
matter  too  high  for  me,  and  I  think  for  us  all.  I 
only  insist  that,  assuming  the  strictest  unity  and 
even  simplicity  of  God's  nature,  He  could  not  be 

1  The  writer  of  the  series  of  letters  in  the  New  York  Evangelist, 
reprinted  in  1849  under  the  title :  "  What  does  Dr.  Bushnell 
Mean  ?  "  denies  that  any  "  Trinitarian  ever  said  or  believed  that 
the  three  persons  of  the  Godhead  are  one  person."  The  denial 
overlooks  Bushnell's  full  discussion  of  the  meaning  of  person, 
that  sets  the  charge  in  a  different  light. 


120  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

efficiently  or  sufficiently  revealed  to  us  without 
evolving  a  trinity  of  persons,  such  as  we  meet  in 
the  Scriptures.  These  persons  or  personalities  are 
the  dramatis  personal  of  revelation,  and  their 
reality  is  measured  by  what  of  the  infinite  they 
convey  in  these  finite  forms.  As  such,  they  bear, 
on  the  one  hand,  a  relation  to  God,  who  is  to  be  con- 
veyed or  imported  into  knowledge ;  on  the  other, 
they  are  related  to  our  human  capacities  and  wants, 
being  that  presentation  of  God  which  is  necessary 
to  make  Him  a  subject  of  thought,  or  bring  Him 
within  the  discourse  of  reason ;  that  also  which  is 
necessary  to  produce  mutuality,  or  terms  of  con- 
versableness,  between  us  and  Him,  and  pour  his 
love  most  effectually  into  our  feeling  "  (p.  137). 

This  conception  is  enforced  by  showing  the  im- 
possibility of  knowing  God  as  the  Absolute,  and 
insisting  on  "  a  trinity,  and  incarnation,  and  other 
like  devices  of  revelation "  as  the  only  means  of 
knowing  Him.  "  It  is  only  through  relations,  con- 
trasts, actions,  and  reactions  that  we  come  into  a 
knowledge  of  God."  He  attributes  to  God  "  a 
capacity  of  self-expression, — a  generative  power 
of  form,"  by  which  he  can  "  represent  himself 
in  the  finite.  .  .  .  This  is  the  Logos,  the  Word, 
elsewhere  called  the  '  form  of  God.' ,:  As  "  the 
human  form  of  our  race  .  .  .  God  will  live  him- 
self into  the  acquaintance  and  biographic  history 
of  the  world."  Here,  of  course,  he  enters  into  the 
Sabellian  atmosphere.  Having  stated  the  proper 
divinity  of  Christ,  he  proceeds  to  discuss  "  the  dif- 


"GOD   IN  CHRIST"  121 

Acuities  created  by  the  supposed  relations  of  the 
divine  to  the  human  in  the  person  of  Christ." 
He  meets  them  through  the  doctrine  of  the  Logos, 
—  as  God  puts  himself  under  limitations  in  crea- 
tion, so  "  God  may  act  a  human  personality  with- 
out being  measured  by  it "  as  in  other  created 
forms.  After  much  discussion  of  this  point,  he 
denies  "  two  distinct  substances "  in  Christ,  and 
contends  that  "  the  reality  of  Christ  is  what  he 
expresses  of  God  "  (p.  156). 

In  respect  to  the  obedience  of  Christ  he  makes 
a  significant  remark  indicating  his  Sabellian  tend- 
ency :  "  Man  obeys  for  what  obedience  is,  but  the 
subject  obedient  state  of  Christ  is  accepted  for 
what  it  conveys,  or  expresses."  This  remark  lets 
in  the  Grotian  theory  of  the  atonement,  to  which 
the  Sabellian  theory  of  the  person  of  Christ  easily 
lends  itself,  both  theories  being  based  on  expression. 
"  And  so  it  may  be  that  Christ  sanctifies  the  law 
that  we  have  broken,  erecting  it  again,  hi  its  ori- 
ginal sacredness  and  majesty,  before  all  mankind  " 
(p.  161).  His  discussion  brings  him  face  to  face 
with  the  passibility  of  God,  which  he  accepts, 
though  acknowledging  that  "  the  mystery  of  the 
divine-human  must  remain  a  mystery."  Still,  he 
gravitates  toward  an  affirmative  answer  to  his 
question,  "  Whether  God,  by  a  mysterious  union 
with  the  human,  can  so  far  employ  the  element  of 
suffering  as  to  make  it  a  vehicle  for  the  expression 
of  his  own  grace  and  tenderness  "   (p.  162). 

At  last  he  comes  to  a  distinct  and  full  statement 
of  his  conception  of  Christ :  — 


122  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

"  Perhaps  it  may  be  imagined  that  I  intend,  in 
holding  this  view  of  the  incarnation,  or  the  person 
of  Christ,  to  deny  that  he  had  a  human  soul,  or 
anything  human  but  a  human  body.  1  only  deny 
that  his  human  soul,  or  nature,  is  to  be  spoken  of, 
or  looked  upon,  as  having  a  distinct  subsistence,  so 
as  to  live,  think,  learn,  worship,  suffer,  by  itself. 
Disclaiming  all  thought  of  denying,  or  affirming 
anything  as  regards  the  interior  composition  or  con- 
struction of  his  person,  I  insist  that  he  stands  before 
us  in  simple  unity,  one  person,  the  divine-human,  re- 
presenting the  qualities  of  his  double  parentage  as 
the  Son  of  God  and  the  son  of  Mary.  I  do  not 
say  that  he  is  composed  of  three  elements,  a  divine 
person,  a  human  soul,  and  a  human  body  ;  nor  of 
these  that  they  are  distinctly  three,  or  absolutely 
one.  I  look  upon  him  only  in  the  external  way ; 
for  he  comes  to  be  viewed  externally  in  what  may 
be  expressed  through  him,  and  not  in  any  other 
way.  As  to  any  metaphysical  or  speculative  diffi- 
culties involved  in  the  union  of  the  divine  and  the 
human,  I  dismiss  them  all,  by  observing  that  Christ 
is  not  here  for  the  sake  of  something  accomplished 
in  his  metaphysical  or  psychological  interior,  but 
for  that  which  appears  and  is  outwardly  signified  in 
his  life.  And  it  is  certainly  competent  for  God  to 
work  out  the  expression  of  his  own  feeling,  and  his 
union  to  the  race,  in  what  way  most  approves  itself 
to  him.  Regarding  Christ  in  this  exterior,  and,  as 
it  were,  aesthetic  way,  he  is  that  Holy  Thing  in 
which  my  God  is  brought  to  me,  —  brought  even 


"GOD   IN   CHRIST"  123 

down  to  a  fellow  relation  with  me.  I  shall  not 
call  him  two.  I  shall  not  decompose  him  and  label 
dff  his  doings,  one  to  the  credit  of  his  divinity, 
and  another  to  the  credit  of  his  humanity.  I  shall 
receive  him,  in  the  simplicity  of  faith,  as  my  one 
Lord  and  Saviour,  nor  any  the  less  so  that  he  is 
my  brother  "  (p.  163). 

After  meeting  the  objection  that  this  view  makes 
Christ  "  too  exclusively  divine,"  he  surprises  the 
reader  by  putting  in  a  criticism  of  the  Sabellian 
theory  as  representing  that  "  God  is  the  Father  in 
virtue  of  his  creation  and  government  of  the  world." 
Bushnell  contends  that  he  is  not  the  Father  "  as 
one  God,"  but  that  he  is  so  named  as  incidental 
to  the  central  fact  or  mystery  of  the  incarnation. 
So  far  as  Sabellianism  is  a  theory  of  the  mode  of 
the  divine  existence,  Bushnell  is  not  a  Sabellian, 
for  he  will  not  enter  that  mystery ;  but  so  far  as 
it  stands  for  a  self -expressing  power  of  God  in  the 
Son  who  thus  reveals  the  Father,  he  is  a  Sabellian, 
—  he  will  not  go  farther  into  deity  than  the  Logos. 
But  this  refusal  does  not  relieve  him  from  the 
designation.  The  distinction  he  makes  cuts  the 
ancient  heresy  in  two,  one  part  of  which  becomes 
increasingly  defensible  under  modern  thought,  and 
largely  stands  for  the  doctrine. 

If  asked  whether  he  means  simply  "  to  assert  a 
modal  trinity,  or  three  modal  persons,"  he  says  : 
"  I  must  answer  obscurely,  just  as  I  answered  in 
regard  to  the  humanity  of  Christ.  If  I  say  that 
they  are  modal  only,  as  the  word  is  commonly  used, 


124  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

I  may  deny  more  than  I  am  justified  in  denying, 
or  am  required  to  deny,  by  the  ground  I  have 
taken.  I  will  only  say  that  the  trinity,  or  the 
three  persons,  are  given  to  me  for  the  sake  of  their 
external  expression,  not  for  the  internal  investiga- 
tion of  their  contents.  If  I  use  them  rationally 
or  wisely,  then  I  shall  use  them  according  to  their 
object.  I  must  not  intrude  upon  their  interior 
nature,  either  by  assertion  or  denial.  They  must 
have  their  reality  to  me  in  what  they  express  when 
taken  as  the  wording  forth  of  God.  Perhaps  I 
shall  come  nearest  to  the  simple,  positive  idea  of 
the  trinity  here  maintained  if  I  call  it  an  Instru- 
mental Trinity,  and  the  persons  Instrumental 
Persons  "  (p.  175). 

If  required  to  answer  whether  the  three  persons 
are  eternal,  or  only  occasional  and  to  be  discontin- 
ued, he  says  :  "  Undoubtedly  the  distinction  of  the 
Word,  or  the  power  of  self-representation  in  God 
thus  denominated,  is  eternal.  And  in  this  we  have 
a  permanent  ground  of  possibility  for  the  threefold 
impersonation  called  trinity.  Accordingly,  if  God 
has  been  eternally  revealed,  or  revealing  himself 
to  created  minds,  it  is  likely  always  to  have  been 
and  always  to  be  as  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost.  Consequently,  it  may  always  be  in  this 
manner  that  we  shall  get  our  impressions  of  God, 
and  have  our  communion  with  Him  "  (p.  177). 

He  grants,  however,  that  St.  Paul  (1  Cor.  xv.  28) 
discourages  this  view.  The  trend  of  his  thought 
evidently  is  towards  a  trinity  of  expression  only, 


"GOD  IN  CHRIST"  125 

leaving  room  for  a  possible  corresponding  basis  in 
the  divine  nature.  He  will  not  try  to  find  intima- 
tions of  an  analogous  triad  in  St.  John  or  St.  Paul 
or  Plato  :  "  Let  us  rather  baptize  our  over-curious 
spirit  hito  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  teach  it  quietly  to 
rest  in  what  of  God's  infinite  nature  it  may  there 
receive.  We  talk  of  simplicity,  often,  when  upon 
tins  matter  of  trinity,  —  as  we  rightly  may.  Oh, 
that  we  had  simplicity  enough  to  let  God  be  God, 
and  the  revelation  He  gives  us,  a  revelation !  — 
neither  trying  to  make  Him  a  finite  person  after 
our  own  human  model,  nor  ourselves  three,  that  we 
may  bring  our  humanity  up  to  solve  the  mysteries 
of  his  absolute,  infinite  substance !  There  is  no  so 
true  simplicity  as  that  which  takes  the  practical  at 
its  face,  uses  instruments  as  instruments,  however 
complex  and  mysterious,  and  refuses  to  be  cheated 
of  the  uses  of  life  by  an  over-curious  questioning 
of  that  which  God  has  given  for  its  uses  "  (p.  179). 
We  have  in  these  words  a  repetition  of  that  cry 
of  his  heart  when  undergoing  his  first  struggle 
with  the  subject,  —  "  My  heart  wants  the  Father ; 
my  heart  wants  the  Son  ;  my  heart  wants  the  Holy 
Ghost."  However  much  he  may  speculate  on  the 
question,  —  and  he  could  keep  pace  with  the  most 
diligent,  in  that  play  of  mind, — there  are  two  things 
that  go  before  and  invest  all  his  thinking ;  —  he  will 
make  room  for  nothing  that  does  not  ally  itself 
with  experience ;  and  he  will  not  let  go  the  clue 
that  connects  him  with  nature  in  its  larger  sense. 


126  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

The  incarnation  is  simply  "  another  outgoing  from 
the  Absolute  into  the  human  ; "  it  has  analogies  in 
nature  that  may  be  more  than  such  under  the  light 
of  the  Logos,  —  a  reality  large  enough  to  suggest 
a  universal  law.  Plis  theory,  whether  orthodox  or 
not,  is  not  weak,  nor  is  it  without  a  vast  amount 
of  substance.  If  he  does  not  plant  the  trinity  on 
the  interior  nature  of  the  Deity,  he  puts  it  into  the 
Logos,  in  which  and  through  which  is  all  of  God 
that  is  known  or  can  be  known.  Back  of  it  lies 
the  Eternal  Mystery. 

Bushnell  refused  to  be  called  a  Sabellian,  and 
yet  he  is  so  named,  and  not  wholly  without  reason. 
The  difference  is  real,  but  not  enough  to  relieve 
him  of  the  imputation.  Sabellianism  asserts  a 
trinity  of  manifestations,  and  denies  that  God 
exists  eternally  as  a  triad  of  persons.  Bushnell 
assents  to  the  first,  but,  as  we  have  said,  declines 
to  make  any  assertion,  positive  or  negative,  in  re- 
spect to  the  second.  God  may  or  may  not  exist  as 
a  trinity  of  persons,  but  He  has  the  power  of  ex- 
pressing himself  in  three  forms,  and  in  how  many 
other  forms  we  do  not  know  ;  it  is  a  mystery  into 
which  he  will  not  enter.  But  the  substance  of 
Sabellianism  lies  in  its  positive  assertion,  with  which 
he  was  in  accord.  Bushnell,  however,  should  have 
full  credit  for  the  amount  of  meaning  he  put  into 
his  refusal  to  dogmatize  as  to  the  interior  nature  of 
God.  He  would  not  touch  that  mystery,  simply  be- 
cause it  is  a  mystery  and  beyond  conception.  There 
was  nothing  concerning  the  Godhead  which  the  over- 


"GOD  IN  CHRIST"  127 

brave  theologians  of  New  England  did  not  attempt 
to  make  clear  on  the  strength  of  a  few  passages 
of  Scripture,  doctrinal  traditions,  and  a  dialectic 
framed  to  meet  certain  conceived  necessities  of  the 
divine  government.  Bushnell's  entire  career,  more 
even  than  he  knew,  was  a  protest  against  these  ways 
of  thinking  and  reasoning.  More  also  than  he  knew 
was  he  leading  the  way  into  a  habit  of  thought 
that  is  becoming  daily  more  imperative,  namely,  a 
humble  and  careful  search  after  grounds  of  belief. 
While  he  found  no  reason  for  asserting  an  eternal 
triad  in  the  divine  being,  he  saw  many  reasons  for 
asserting  a  Logos,  an  eternal  self -expressing  power 
in  God  which  appeared  as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy 
Ghost.  That  is,  he  was  wide  open  to  the  growing 
and  already  dominant  conception  of  the  universe 
as  a  manifestation  of  the  immanent  God.  Under 
this  conception  he  found  full  room  for  a  trinity 
of  manifestation  and  expression,  confident  that  a 
truth  which  embraced  the  universe  was  sufficient 
to  cover  the  revelation  of  God  in  humanity.  In 
an  article  on  "  The  Christian  Trinity  a  Practical 
Truth,"  not  in  answer  to  criticism,  but  to  explain 
himself,  and  to  state  some  change  of  opinion,  he 
goes  over  the  subject  again  with  great  care.  He 
does  not  accept  the  trinity  because  it  has  uses, 
but  accepting  it,  he  finds  uses. 

"  In  this  respect,  the  Trinity,  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  practically  accepted  and  freely  used, 
with  never  a  question  about  the  speculative  nature 
of  the  mystery,  with  never  a  doubt  of  God's  rigid 


128  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

and  perfect  unity,  will  be  found  to  answer  exactly 
the  great  problem  of  the  practical  life  of  religion  ; 
viz.,  how  to  keep  alive  the  profoundest,  most  ade- 
quate sense  of  God's  infinity,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
the  most  vivid  and  intensest  sense  of  his  social  and 
mutual  relationship  as  a  person."  (Building  Eras, 
p.  122.) 

The  trinity  is  needed  first,  "  to  save  the  dimen- 
sions or  practical  infinity  of  God,  consistently  with 
his  personality."  His  object  here  is  to  escape  pan- 
theism, and  also  to  show  that  Unitarianism  does 
not  cover  the  infinity  of  God  by  its  "  presentation 
of  a  Universal  Father,  one  person."  The  second 
use  is  summed  up  in  the  phrase  "  an  economic 
Trinity ; "  that  is,  on  account  of  its  practical  rela-. 
tion  to  our  character  and  our  state  as  sinners  ;  it 
is  "  the  instrument  and  coefficient  of  a  supernatu- 
ral grace  or  redemptive  economy."  He  is  careful 
to  state  that  these  are  not  reasons  for  accepting 
the  trinity,  but  having  accepted  it,  he  finds  them. 
From  this  point  he  goes  a  long  way  toward  assent- 
ing to  the  Nicene  formula,  but  he  is  always  retreat- 
ing into  his  theory  of  language,  and  falling  back 
on  his  ingrained  sense  of  the  universe  as  an  expres- 
sion of  God ;  he  cannot  quite  put  Ins  new  wine 
into  old  bottles. 

The  discourse  at  Andover  on  "  Dogma  and 
Spirit "  consisted  in  a  statement  of  the  causes  that 
led  to  the  schism  in  the  churches  by  which  the  two 
parties  became  known  as  Orthodox  and  Unitarian, 
and  in  a  plea  for  reunion.     He  protests  against 


"GOD  IN  CHRIST"  129 

suffering  opinion  to  pass  into  dogma  under  the 
sanction  of  authority,  and  contends  that  the  gospel, 
being  a  manifestation  of  God  through  the  medium 
of  expression,  "  requires  for  an  inlet,  not  reason, 
or  logic,  or  a  scientific  power,  so  much  as  a  right 
sensibility." 

The  chief  significance  of  the  address  lay  in  the 
fact  that  it  was  a  flag  of  truce  raised  while  the 
battle  was  at  its  height,  and  neither  side  had  yet 
showed  signs  of  weakening  or  of  approaching  de- 
feat. Nothing  of  the  spirit  that  pervaded  the 
ranks  on  either  side  found  its  way  into  his  words. 
He  covered  both  with  explanatory  reasons,  and 
lifted  them  into  a  region  of  the  spirit  where  dogma 
and  denial  of  dogma  sink,  not  out  of  existence,  but 
into  subservience.  A  single  quotation  gives  the 
keynote  to  the  whole  discourse,  and  explains  why 
one  side  grew  more  bitter  in  its  criticism,  and  why 
the  other  side  hesitated  over  accepting  concessions 
that  were  attended  with  strictures  so  severe. 

"  The  manner  in  which  dogmatism  necessitates 
division  may  be  well  enough  illustrated  by  the 
mournful  separation  which  has  taken  place  in  the 
New  England  churches.  Had  we  been  embodied 
in  the  simple  love  of  God  under  some  such  badge, 
for  example,  as  the  Apostles'  Creed,  it  is  very 
probable  to  me  that  the  causes  of  the  division 
would  never  have  existed.  But  we  had  an  article 
which  asserted  a  metaphysical  trinity,  and  this 
made  the  assertion  of  a  metaphysical  unity  inevit- 
able ;   nay,  more,  even  desirable.     So  we  had  a 


130  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

theory  of  atonement,  another  of  depravity,  another 
of  regeneration,  or  the  ingeneration  of  character, 
which  required  the  appearance,  so  to  speak,  of  an- 
tagonistic theories.  Our  theologic  culture,  mean- 
time, was  so  limited,  on  one  side,  that  we  took 
what  was  really  our  own  opinion  only,  to  be  the 
unalterable  truth  of  God ;  on  the  other,  the  side 
of  the  revolt,  too  limited  to  perceive  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  dogma  as  a  fruit  of  the  mere  understand- 
ing, too  limited  not  to  take  the  opposite,  with  the 
same  seriousness  and  totality  of  conviction.  On 
this  side  they  assumed  the  sufficiency  of  opinions 
and  of  speculative  comprehension,  in  a  more  unre- 
strained sense  than  had  been  done  before.  They 
even  fell  to  the  work  of  constructing  a  religion 
wholly  within  the  moulds  of  natural  reason  itself, 
admitting  nothing  transcendent  in  the  reach  of 
faith,  or  the  manifestation  of  the  life  of  God. 
They  asserted  liberty,  as  they  must  to  vindicate 
their  revolt,  producing,  however,  meantime,  the 
most  intensely  human,  and  in  that  sense,  the  most 
intensely  opinionative  religion  ever  invented,  under 
the  name  of  Christianity. 

"  Have  they  no  reason,  together  with  us,  to  take 
up  now,  at  last,  some  suspicion  of  the  insufficiency 
of  dogma  and  of  all  mere  speculative  opinions 
formed  within  the  life  of  nature?  May  we  not  all 
begin  to  see  that  the  ministration  of  life  is  some- 
what broader,  deeper,  more  sufficient,  more  divine  ? 
And  what  if  we  all,  feeling  our  deep  want,  and 
sorrowing:  over  the  shame  our  human  wisdom  has 


"GOD  IN  CHRIST"  131 

cost  us,  should  come  back  together  to  the  simple 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  one  God,  there  to 
enter  into  peace  through  the  blood  of  Jesus,  and 
there  to  abide  in  the  fullness  of  love  and  brother- 
hood. Or  if  we  should  kneel  down  together  be- 
fore Him,  and  say,  '  I  believe  in  God  the  Father 
Ahnighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth,'  and  go  on 
thus,  to  —  '  the  life  everlasting,'  what  invisible 
minister  of  God,  hanging  as  a  listener  about  us, 
would  not  join  us,  at  the  close,  and  say  '  Amen.' 

"  Perhaps  it  may  be  too  soon  to  look  for  any 
so  beautiful  result  as  this.  But  it  is  not  too  soon 
for  us  to  be  setting  the  human  in  the  place  of  the 
human,  the  divine  in  the  place  of  the  divine ;  to 
be  drawing,  all,  towards  simplicity ;  to  pray  more, 
and  expect  more  light  to  come  of  the  Life ;  to  be 
more  in  love,  and  less  in  opinion  ;  oftener  to  bless, 
and  as  much  less  often  to  judge  "  (pp.  338-340). 

The  discourse  at  Cambridge  on  "  The  Atone- 
ment" was  afterward  expanded  into  "The  Vica- 
rious Sacrifice,"  which  will  be  considered  far- 
ther on. 


CHAPTER  IX 
DAYS  OF  ACCUSATION 


"  I  shall  merely  enumerate  a  few  of  the  most  common  of  these 
feelings  that  present  obstacles  to  the  pursuit  or  propagation  of 
truth  :  Aversion  to  doubt ;  desire  of  a  supposed  happy  medium ; 
the  love  of  system  ;  the  dread  of  the  character  of  inconsistency  ; 
the  love  of  novelty ;  the  dread  of  innovation  ;  undue  deference  to 
human  authority ;  the  love  of  approbation,  and  the  dread  of  cen- 
sure ;  regard  to  seeming  expediency."  —  Whately's  Annotations 
on  Bacon's  Essay  on  Truth,  p.  10. 

"  The  principles  on  which  I  have  taught :  First,  The  establish- 
ment of  positive  truth,  instead  of  the  negative  destruction  of  error. 
Secondly,  That  truth  is  made  up  of  two  opposite  propositions, 
and  not  found  in  a  via  media  between  the  two.  Thirdly,  That 
spiritual  truth  is  discerned  by  the  spirit,  instead  of  intellectually 
in  propositions  ;  and,  therefore,  truth  should  be  taught  suggest- 
ively, not  dogmatically.  Fourthly,  That  belief  in  the  human 
character  of  Christ's  humanity  must  be  antecedent  to  belief  in 
bis  divine  origin.  Fifthly,  That  Christianity,  as  its  teachers 
should,  works  from  the  inward  to  the  outward,  and  not  vice 
versa.  Sixthly,  The  soul  of  goodness  in  things  evil."  —  Life  of 
F.  W.  Robertson,  vol.  ii.  p.  160. 


CHAPTER  IX 

DAYS   OF  ACCUSATION 

Dr.  Bushnell  wrote  few  letters  beyond  those 
addressed  to  his  family.  His  friends  were  near  at 
hand,  and  his  relations  to  them  were,  for  the  most 
part,  direct.  But  the  letters  we  have  are  of  ut- 
most value  as  showing  the  oneness  of  the  theologian 
and  the  man.  He  is  reticent  as  an  author,  but 
among  friends  he  was  a  free  talker,  hiding  nothing, 
and  ready  to  express  his  entire  thought  and  feel- 
ing. The  only  extensive  correspondence  carried 
on  by  him  was  with  the  Rev.  C.  A.  Bartol,  D.  D., 
of  Boston,  a  catholic-minded  man  of  genius,  who 
represented  the  more  spiritual  side  of  Unitarian- 
ism.  A  sermon  preached  in  Boston  by  Bushnell 
in  June,  1846,  on  "  Barbarism,  the  First  Danger," 
seems  to  mark  the  beginning  of  "  a  friendship 
which  became  one  of  the  most  valued  of  his  life, 
and  a  source  of  untold  refreshment  in  the  desert 
of  controversy  through  which  he  was  about  to  pass." 

The  value  of  this  friendship,  theologically,  was 
great.  Through  it  he  came  into  close  contact  with 
Unitarianism  on  its  most  real  and  representative 
side.  So  far  as  personal  sympathy  had  weight, 
its  attraction  could  not  have  been  stronger.     The 


130  HORACE   BUSIINELL 

relation  proved  to  be  a  fine  test  of  the  reality  of 
his  opinions.  While  it  begot  a  charity  and  re- 
spect for  the  other  side,  —  things  greatly  needed 
at  the  time,  —  it  does  not  seem  to  have  had  much 
effect  in  moulding  his  views. 

The  following  letters  were  written  to  Dr.  Bartol, 
one  just  before,  the  others  soon  after,  the  publica- 
tion of  "  God  in  Christ." 

Hartford,  October  11,  1848. 
My  dear  Friend,  —  I  thank  you  for  your  very 
kind  letter.  It  is  refreshing  to  know  somebody 
that  dare  let  out  his  heart ;  for  I  begin  to  find 
that  I  am  looked  upon  hereabouts  as  a  mortally 
dangerous  person.  I  think  I  have  never  seemed 
to  be  quite  so  much  isolated  as  now ;  not  that  I 
am  really  and  finally  cast  off,  but  every  man  seems 
to  say,  and  almost  every  one  actually  says,  "  When 
is  the  book  coming  out  ?  "...  I  think  I  under- 
stand how  much  is  depending  on  it,  and,  of  course, 
what  my  responsibilities  are.  Still,  though  it  is 
the  "  crisis  of  my  life,"  as  you  intimate,  I  suffer 
no  anxiety  whatever  as  to  the  result.  Not  because 
it  may  not,  in  one  view,  be  important  to  me,  but 
because  I  am  willing  to  trust  myself,  and  can  do 
it  calmly,  to  God  and  the  conscious  honesty  of  my 
convictions.  I  have  a  certain  feeling,  too,  I  will 
not  deny,  that  if  what  I  am  about  to  say  should 
be  stifled  and  killed  by  an  over-hasty  judgment, 
it  will  yet  rise  again  the  third  day.  This  feeling 
1  have,  not  in  exultation,  it  seems  to  me,  not  so 


DAYS   OF  ACCUSATION  137 

much  in  the  shape  of  defiance,  as  in  the  shape  of 
consolation,  a  soft  whisper  that  lingers  round  me 
in  my  studies,  to  hold  me  firm,  and  smooth  me 
into  an  even,  uncaring  spirit.  Still,  the  best  of  all 
attitudes,  I  know,  is  this,  —  Let  me  do  the  right, 
and  let  God  take  care  of  me.  I  want  to  be  in  no 
better  hands. 

TO   DR.    BARTOL 

Hartford,  January  8,  1849. 

My  book  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  printers, 
and  I  expect  to  see  the  last  of  the  proof-sheets  to- 
morrow. .  .  .  My  hope  is  not  that  it  will  convert 
anybody  to  me  or  my  ways,  but,  what  is  dearer  to 
me  by  far  and  more  welcome,  that  it  will  start 
up  inquiries  of  a  different  type,  and  lead  to  thought 
of  a  different  character  from  those  which  have 
occupied  the  field  of  New  England  theology,  and 
so  to  revisions,  recastings,  new  affinities,  more 
faith,  and  less  dogma,  and,  above  all,  to  a  more 
catholic  and  fraternal  spirit.  I  expect  to  be  set 
upon  all  round  the  circle ;  and  yet  I  have  a  confi- 
dence that  a  class  of  men  who  have  heart  enough 
to  go  into  the  aesthetic  side  of  religion,  and  eyes 
to  see  something  besides  propositional  wisdom, 
will  admit  that  I  have  some  truth  in  my  represen- 
tations. These,  I  think,  will  even  wonder  a  little 
at  the  disturbance  I  have  made  by  these  exposi- 
tions. .  .  . 

One  thing  will  be  clear  to  many,  —  that  I  am  a 
good  deal  more  for  a  Theos  than  for  a  theology. 


138  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

"With  a  heart  full  of  refreshing  Christian  remem- 
brances, I  am  your  brother, 

H.  BUSHNELL. 

TO   THE   SAME 

Haktford,  February  13,  1849. 

My  dear  Friend  and  Brother,  —  I  send 
you  herewith  the  long  forthcoming  book.  I  have 
spoken  somewhat  freely  of  the  Unitarians  here 
and  there,  as  I  have  of  the  orthodox.  I  hope 
they  will  not  be  any  more  angry  with  me  than  I 
expect  the  orthodox  to  be. 

...  I  rejoice  not  a  little  in  spirit  to  see  the 
signs  that  are  beginning  to  be  unfolded  of  a  new 
spiritual  relation  between  our  divided  families.  I 
see  tokens  of  a  mitigation  of  repugnance,  and  a 
more  indulgent  and  fraternal  charity,  sometimes 
in  quarters,  too,  where  I  should  not  look  for  it. 
I  rejoice,  too,  in  the  fact  that  the  Unitarian  side 
in  Boston  are  evincing  just  now  signs  of  spiritual 
life  that  rebuke  the  dullness  of  orthodoxy.  You 
remember,  perhaps,  that  I  expressed  a  conviction 
that  the  Unitarian  side  would  ultimately  take  the 
lead  of  orthodoxy  in  spiritual  vivacity  and  real 
piety  of  character.  I  am  more  and  more  confi- 
dent of  this,  and  nothing  but  this  is  wanted  to 
silence  all  controversy  and  compel  a  fraternal 
state.  Unitarians,  however,  will  need,  in  order 
to  this,  to  come  off  their  moralistic,  self-cidturing 
method,  cease  to  think  of  a  character  developed 
outwardly  from  their  own  centre,  and  pass  over 


DAYS  OF  ACCUSATION  139 

by  faitli  to  live  in  God,  which  only  is  religion  or 
Christianity.  It  is  to  be  what  God  in  Christ  and 
God  in  the  Spirit  will  make  us,  and  what  we  can- 
not be  in  ourselves. 

Your  brother  in  Christ, 

H.  BlJSHNELL. 

TO  THE   SAME 

Haktfoed,  March  20,  1849. 
My  dear  Friend,  —  What  you  say  regard- 
ing the  untheologic  character  of  my  book,  or  its 
value  as  a  "  suggestive  "  instrument  principally, 
exactly  meets  my  feeling.  It  is  what  I  wish  to 
hear;  for  it  is  my  very  theory,  you  know,  that 
nothing  more  is  possible  in  the  way  of  theology 
than  to  act  suggestively.  I  have  no  doubt  that 
some  of  the  orthodox  will  say  —  it  has  been  said 
to  me  privately,  as  you  hint  —  that,  protesting 
against  logic,  I  have  used  it,  and  that,  casting  out 
dogmas,  I  have  done  it  only  to  set  up  a  dogma  of 
my  own.  But  it  will  be  observed  that  I  have 
used  logic  principally  as  a  negative  and  distinc- 
tive instrument,  and  as  ad  hominem  to  the  disci- 
ples of  logic.  And  as  to  dogma,  the  point  to 
which  I  have  brought  everything  is  this,  and  this, 
in  my  view,  includes  all  I  have  done,  viz.,  that 
God,  in  the  matter  of  trinity  and  atonement,  is 
seen  to  approach  us  or  come  into  knowledge,  not 
under  terms  of  logic  and  notionally,  but  under  the 
laws  of  expression.  To  this,  trinity  is  brought 
down ;  to  this,  atonement.     They  meet  us  poeti- 


140  HORACE   BUSIINELL 

cally,  sesthetically,  to  pour  their  contents  into  us 
through  feeling  and  imagination ;  to  deposit  their 
contents,  not  in  our  reason,  but  in  our  faith,  —  by 
faith  to  be  experimented  or  known  experiment- 
ally. ...  If  any  one  chooses  to  call  my  doctrine 
dogma,  and  will  call  every  right  instrument  of 
suggestion,  or  expression,  even  the  last  cry  of 
Jesus,  dogma,  I  have  no  objection. 

TO    THE    SAME 

Hartford,  April  11,  1849. 

My  dear  Friend,  —  I  thank  you  for  the  only 
too  undeserved  compliment  of  your  note  in  the 
"  Inquirer,"  but  more  for  the  very  beautiful,  and 
in  many  points  convincing,  article  you  sent  me  in 
the  "Examiner."  There  are  passages  in  that  arti- 
cle which  I  should  like  mightily  to  have  written, 
and  the  whole  spirit  of  it  is  such  as  to  kindle  a 
true  Christian  fire  in  my  heart.  If  I  must  choose 
between  it  and  the  common  view  of  orthodoxy,  I 
should  not  long  hesitate. 

And  yet  there  is  a  want  in  it,  a  vital  defect  of 
something.  My  heart  cries,  More,  more  !  It  leaves 
God  too  far  off,  interposing,  between  me  and  God, 
a  creature-being,  whom  I  want  to  worship  more 
than  him,  and  who  really  deserves  my  worship 
more  than  he ;  for  surely  it  was  more  in  him  to 
die  for  me,  a  deeper  love,  than  it  was  for  the 
Father  simply  to  let  him.  Just  here,  I  perceive, 
is  going  to  be  the  difficulty  as  regards  that  "  reor- 
ganization" of  which  you  speak.    The  tendency  of 


DAYS  OF  ACCUSATION  141 

German  speculations  and  reactions,  you  have  seen 
(as  in  Ulhnan's  article  on  the  "  Essence  of  Chris- 
tianity"), is  towards  the  "  Incarnation,"  the  union 
of  the  divine  and  the  human  in  the  person  of 
Jesus,  understanding  that  miion  in  its  highest 
sense.  I  am  confident  that  Unitarianism  and 
orthodoxy  can  never  meet  in  any  other  point 
than  this;  partly,  because  the  miraculous  concep- 
tion of  Jesus,  regarding  him  as  a  creature-being 
already  in  esse,  is  too  awkward,  too  virtually  im- 
possible, for  belief ;  more,  because  the  religious 
want  we  have  on  our  side  is  too  vast  to  be  an- 
swered by  any  means  of  so  slender  a  quality. 
Nay,  your  human  or  creature  Saviour  is,  in  one 
view,  an  offense  to  us,  because  it  justifies  that 
frigid  dictum  of  the  logical  judgment  which 
asserts  that  God  is  too  far  off,  too  essentially 
incommunicable,  to  suffer  a  real  union  with  hu- 
manity. I  read  your  eloquent  article,  thrilled  and 
melted  by  its  presentations,  offended  or  shocked 
by  nothing,  as  I  am  by  some  of  our  orthodox 
teachings,  scarcely  dissenting  anywhere,  feeling 
that  God's  character  is  everywhere  justified,  and 
that  I  must  offer  myself  to  communion  in  the  true 
brotherhood  of  the  faith.  And  yet,  when  I  had 
come  to  the  end,  said  Amen  to  almost  everything 
and  closed  the  book,  I  was  still  obliged  to  say, 
Well,  this  is  not  enough ;  it  does  not  fill  me ;  my 
Saviour  is  more,  closer,  vaster,  —  God  himself  en- 
shrined in  this  world-history  with  me  to  sanctify 
both  it  and  me,  and  be  in  it  and  me,  the  fullness 


142  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

of  him  that  filleth  all.  It  is  only  part  of  the  same 
general  defect,  that  you  seem  to  be  more  shy  of 
supernaturalism  than  I  could  wish,  in  the  view 
you  take  of  sacrifices,  and  especially  in  your  view 
of  pardon  ;  for  I  hope  it  will  some  time  or  other 
be  made  to  appear  that  there  is  a  great  deal  more 
of  supernaturalism  in  the  management  of  this  world 
than  even  orthodoxy  has  begun  to  suspect,  —  even 
a  systematic,  world-ruling,  nature-redeeming  super- 
naturalism ;  therefore,  such  as  may  aspire  to  sepa- 
rate sins  (in  pardon)  from  the  damnation  of  mere 
nature,  and  the  causative  hell  that  nature  contains 
or  adds  as  a  destiny  to  sin. 

"The  days  of  accusation,"  to  which  Bushnell 
refers  in  the  dedication  of  "  Sermons  for  the  New 
Life,"  had  fully  come.  A  contemporary  writer 
describes  the  situation  :  — 

"  At  the  time  of  the  publication  of  '  God  in 
Christ,'  the  atmosphere  was  sensitively  tremulous 
with  suspicions  in  respect  to  the  orthodoxy  of  the 
author,  a  state  of  things  of  which  he  himself  was 
not  ignorant.  On  the  issue  of  the  book  from  the 
press  in  February,  1849,  a  few  of  the  religious 
newspapers  and  magazines  spoke  of  it  tolerantly, 
one  or  two  perhaps  kindly,  but  the  larger  number 
with  decided  expressions  of  dissent  and  denuncia- 
tion. The  May  number  of  the  '  New  Englander ' 
for  that  year  contained  a  notice  of  'God  in 
Christ '  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon, 
kindly  in  tone,  and  marked  by  discrimination  and 


DAYS  OF  ACCUSATION  143 

fairness  in  the  statement  of  its  teachings.  Two 
ministers  residing  in  Hartford,  afterwards  abun- 
dantly friendly  to  Dr.  Bushnell,  published  lengthy 
reviews,  more  or  less  dissenting  from  its  state- 
ments of  truth. 

"  But  these  criticisms,  and  others  such  as  these, 
were  the  milk  of  human  kindness  itself,  compared 
with  the  language  employed  by  another  class  of 
writers.  No  sooner  did  the  book  see  the  light 
than  it  became  apparent  that  the  theological 
authorities  were  determined  to  strangle  the  infant 
in  its  very  cradle.  It  was  extensively  believed, 
and  publicly  charged  at  the  time,  that  the  fierce 
and  systematic  onset  which  was  made  upon  the 
author  and  his  new  work  was  the  result  of  a  con- 
certed plan,  originating  in  Hartford  and  its  vicin- 
ity. As  a  part  of  this  plan,  the  leading  theological 
centres  were  to  furnish  each  a  champion  to  assist 
in  crushing  the  man,  who,  though  he  had  denied 
none  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  Christianity,  had 
ventured  to  express  his  faith  in  them  under  formu- 
las and  philosophic  explanations  somewhat  differ- 
ent from  those  which  were  assumed  to  be  canoni- 
cally  settled  for  all  time. 

"  The  first  of  these  criticisms  came  from  the 
Divinity  School  at  New  Haven.  Under  the  cap- 
tion, '  What  does  Dr.  Bushnell  Mean  ? '  three 
articles,  signed  '  Omicron,'  appeared  in  successive 
numbers  of  the  '  New  York  Evangelist.'  On  their 
completion,  these  were  gathered  into  a  pamphlet 
of  twenty-eight  pages  and  extensively  circulated. 


144  HORACE  BUSIINELL 

In  the  course  of  a  week  or  two,  Princeton  gave 
her  weighty  verdict,  in  an  article  of  some  forty 
pages,  in  the  '  Biblical  Repertory  and  Princeton 
Review.'  This,  though  the  most  courteous  and 
discriminating  of  all  the  reviews  proceeding  from 
centres  of  theologic  authority,  yet  failed  in  many 
respects  to  represent  fairly  the  teachings  of  the 
book,  and  pronounced  upon  its  alleged  errors  with 
judicial  severity.  The  next  assaidt  was  made  by 
the  '  Christian  Observatory,'  a  new  religious 
monthly  published  in  Boston,  which  devoted  sixty 
pages  of  its  issue  for  June  to  a  criticism  of  '  God 
in  Christ.'  The  tone  of  this  review  was  bitter  and 
severe  to  a  degree  almost  unequaled  in  the  history 
of  modern  controversial  theology.  About  the  same 
time,  from  Bangor  Theological  Seminary  emanated 
a  volume  of  one  hundred  and  eighteen  pages,  en- 
titled '  Review  of  Dr.  Bushnell's  God  in  Christ ; ' 
a  book  characterized  by  the  calm  and  positively 
assured  conviction  that  a  well-settled  theologic  sys- 
tem is  the  one  touchstone  of  all  truth,  and  that 
the  regions  beyond  are  dangerous  ground,  not 
worth  the  exploring.  The  Theological  Seminary 
at  East  Windsor  furnished  no  formal  review,  but 
performed  its  full  share  in  the  attempted  enter- 
prise of  extinguishing  the  new  heresy  by  keeping 
up  a  running  fire  against  it  in  the  colunms  of  the 
'  Religious  Herald.' " 

The  controversy,  if  such  it  can  be  called,  has 
special  interest  because  it  was  probably  the  last  of 
the  kind  that  will  be  witnessed  in  New  England. 


DATS  OF  ACCUSATION  145 

Bushnell  himself  closed  the  era  of  such  debates, 
not  by  settling  the  disputed  questions,  but  by 
introducing  a  way  of  treating  them  which  is  not 
"  under  terms  of  logic,  but  under  the  laws  of  ex- 
pression." Suggestion  began  to  take  the  place  of 
definition,  and  the  verdicts  of  experience  the  place 
of  dogma.  He  prepared  the  way  for  "  Christian 
consciousness,"  at  that  time  hardly  a  recognized 
factor  in  theology.  Moreover,  evolution  has  taken 
the  cataclysmic  feature  out  of  criticism  as  out  of 
all  else,  and  has  introduced  instead  a  habit  of 
regarding  all  things  as  in  a  process  of  becoming. 
Antagonism  has  given  place  to  orderly  phases,  — 
each  phase  being  a  result  and  a  cause.  The  po- 
lemic no  longer  has  a  vocation,  or  lingers  like  a 
chance  survivor  of  an  extinct  species. 

Bushnell  prepared  himself  for  the  storm  by  a 
stout-  resolution  not  to  be  drawn  into  any  reply 
"  unless  there  is  produced  against  me  some  argu- 
ment of  so  great  force  that  I  feel  myself  required 
out  of  simple  duty  to  the  truth,  either  to  surrender 
or  to  make  important  modifications  in  the  views 
I  have  advanced,"  —  a  resolution  that  sounds 
strangely  in  connection  with  the  fact  that  his 
most  brilliant  book  in  some  respects  is  an  aggres- 
sive and  slashing  defense,  in  which  he  surrenders 
and  modifies  far  less  than  he  reiterates  and  asserts. 
Still,  the  resolution  indicates,  even  if  it  was  not 
kept,  a  mind  that  played  in  a  higher  field  than 
that  of  dialectic  combat. 

But  the  situation  was  not  without  humor.     In 


146  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

a  letter  to  Rev.  Henry  Goodwin,  one  of  his  ear- 
liest and  ablest  defenders,  he  wrote  :  "  Have  you 
read  the  long  review  in  '  The  Princeton  '  ?  You 
have  seen  me  a  pantheist  in  '  The  Evangelist.' 
Why  not  an  atheist  as  well,  with  a  special  incar- 
nation and  a  plan  of  supernatural  redemption  ? 
This  would  enlighten  the  Germans  !  "  Rev.  Mr. 
Chesebrough  had  noticed  the  discrepancies  be- 
tween the  reviewers  ;  and  inasmuch  as  the  leading 
attack  was  headed  with  the  question,  "  What  does 
Dr.  Bushnell  mean  ?  "  Mr.  Chesebrough,  in  a  series 
of  letters  to  the  "  Religious  Herald,"  raised  the 
question,  "  Do  they  understand  him  ?  "  These  let- 
ters, written  under  the  signature  C.  C.  (Criticus 
Criticorum),  formed  a  unique  and  effective  piece  of 
criticism.  His  method  was  that  of  placing  quota- 
tions from  the  critics  in  parallel  columns.  It  had 
been  claimed  in  the  "  Religious  Herald  "  that  they 
concurred  in  their  understanding  of  the  book.  The 
parallel  quotations  showed  violent  contradiction, 
both  by  assigning  to  Bushnell  different  opinions 
on  the  same  subject,  and  by  indicating  conflict- 
ing beliefs  and  opinions  among  the  writers  them- 
selves. He  is  accused  not  only  of  all  the  heresies 
from  the  Docetse  down,  but  of  those  that  exclude 
each  other.  But  this  is  not  more  marked  than 
the  disagreement  among  themselves  on  the  points 
under  consideration.  New  Haven  and  Princeton 
and  Bangor  flatly  contradict  one  another  on  the 
trinity  and  atonement ;  Professor  Goodrich  con- 
tends for  a  view  of  the  person  of  Christ  which 


DAYS   OF   ACCUSATION  147 

Dr.  Hodge  declares  was  never  heard  of,  and  all 
are  at  sea  as  to  Sabellianism  and  the  Logos.  It 
was  also  strange  to  see  Dr.  Hodge  of  Princeton 
holding  a  view  of  the  trinity  more  nearly  in  ac- 
cord with  that  of  Bushnell  than  that  put  forth 
by  such  New  England  divines  as  Adams,  Albro, 
Edwards,  Beecher,  Kirk,  McClure,  Stearns,  and 
Thompson  in  the  "Christian  Observatory."  We 
may  remark  in  passing  that  the  close  contact  of 
these  ministers  with  Unitarianism,  for  all  lived  in 
or  near  Boston,  is  the  explanation  of  their  strenu- 
ous orthodoxy,  which,  in  turn,  is  the  explanation 
of  Unitarianism.  It  is  not  rash  to  say  that  had 
these  eminent  divines  tolerated  Bushnell's  semi- 
Sabellianisni  even  to  the  extent  to  which  Dr. 
Hodge  of  Princeton  tolerated  it,  a  schism  that 
never  ought  to  have  existed  might  have  been  in  a 
great  measure  healed.  Who,  for  example,  could 
object  to  the  following  statement,  unless  he  has 
retreated  from  the  church  into  pure  theism  with 
its  impenetrable  mystery  ?  "  Neither  is  it  any 
so  great  wisdom,  as  many  theologians  appear  to 
fancy,  to  object  to  the  word  person.  .  .  .  We 
only  need  to  abstain  from  assigning  to  these  divine 
persons  an  interior,  metaphysical  nature,  which 
we  are  no  wise  able  to  investigate,  or  which  we 
may  positively  know  to  contradict  the  real  unity 
of  God."  (God  in  Christ,  p.  174.)  To  this  Dr. 
Hodge  says  "  Amen,"  and  adds :  "  What  Trinita- 
rian wishes  more,  or  can  say  more,  than  Dr.  Bush- 
nell says  here  ?  "  (Princeton  Review,  pp.  260,  261.) 


148  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

We  do  not  mean  to  intimate  that  the  Unitarians 
of  that  day  or  of  this  would  have  been  satisfied 
with  Bushnell's  doctrine  of  the  trinity,  but  only 
that,  had  his  view  been  tolerated,  they  would  have 
felt  relief  from  the  tritheism  which  so  troubled 
them. 

The  movement  had  in  view  a  trial  before  the 
Consociation,  a  body  that  needs  to  be  described 
in  order  to  be  imderstood  by  the  general  reader. 
In  1708  the  Saybrook  Synod  made  a  statement  of 
doctrine  known  as  the  Saybrook  Platform,  which 
provided  that  the  churches  should  be  grouped  in 
Consociations  or  Standing  Councils,  generally  one 
in  each  county.  The  Consociation  was  not  only 
a  Standing  Council,  but  a  court  for  considering 
and  deciding  all  cases  of  discipline  not  easily  set- 
tled by  the  local  church.  Its  decisions  were  final, 
though  another  Consociation  might  be  called  into 
the  case.  It  was  in  substance  Presbyterianism. 
The  ministers,  at  the  same  time,  were  divided  into 
Associations  for  consultation,  and  for  licensing 
candidates  for  the  ministry,  but  the  Consociation 
had  charge  of  all  strictly  ecclesiastical  affairs.1  As 
it  was  Presbyterian  in  form,  so  it  came  to  repre- 
sent the  more  conservative  side  in  theology,  espe- 

1  See  History  of  Congregational  Churches,  by  Professor  Willis- 
ton  Walker,  p.  206  ;  also  An  Historical  Address,  by  Rev.  E.  P. 
Parker,  D.  D.,  on  "  The  Hartford  Central  Association  and  the 
Bnshnell  Controversy,"  —  a  contribution  of  permanent  value  to 
the  history  of  Congregationalism  in  Connecticut,  and  the  fullest 
account  of  the  efforts  to  bring  Bushnell  to  trial.  (Printed  in 
Hartford,  lt>96.) 


DAYS  OF  ACCUSATION  149 

clally  when,  under  the  teaching  of  New  Haven,  the 
lines  were  closely  drawn  between  the  Old  and  New 
Schools.  Bushnell  could  not  be  brought  before  the 
Consociation  until  he  had  been  presented  for  trial 
by  his  Association.  The  first  step  in  this  direc- 
tion was  taken  June  5,  1849,  by  the  appointment 
of  a  coniniittee  "  to  examine  the  book  in  question, 
and  confer  with  Brother  Bushnell,  and  report  at 
an  adjourned  meeting  of  this  body  whether  he 
have,  in  fact,  published  views  fundamentally  erro- 
neous." 

Two  reports  were  presented ;  that  of  the  major- 
ity said :  — 

"  We  are  satisfied  that  whatever  errors  the 
book  may  contain,  it  furnishes  no  sufficient  ground 
for  instituting  a  judicial  process  with  him.  We 
regret  his  departure,  in  some  of  his  statements, 
from  the  formulas  of  the  church.  We  adhere  to 
these  formulas  ;  but  we  regard  him,  notwithstand- 
ing the  exceptions  he  has  taken  to  them,  as  hold- 
ing whatever  is  essential  to  the  scheme  of  doctrine 
which  they  embody. 

"  He  could  not,  in  our  view,  be  properly  or 
justly  subjected  to  the  charge  of  heresy  and  a 
consequent  trial,  or  be  denied  the  confidence  of 
his  brethren." 

A  minority  report  declared  that  the  book  in 
question  contains  fundamental  errors,  justly  sub- 
jecting the  author  to  the  charge  of  heresy. 

At  a  later  meeting  of  the  Association  the  major- 
ity report  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  seventeen  to 


150  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

three.  This  practical  unanimity  rendered  it  im- 
probable that  the  Consociation  could  ever  bring 
Bushnell  to  trial ;  but  the  question  was  at  last  set- 
tled by  the  spontaneous  withdrawal  of  the  church 
of  which  he  was  pastor  from  that  body.  Mean- 
while another  Association,  the  Fairfield  West,  un- 
dertook to  secure  action  in  the  General  Associa- 
tion, but  failed  on  the  ground  that  only  district 
Associations  can  institute  discipline  in  cases  of 
error  among  their  members.  Under  the  Congre- 
gational system  trial  for  heresy  is  a  self-limiting 
disease.  Foiled  in  this  direction,  it  next  addressed 
(January,  1850)  a  "Remonstrance  and  Com- 
plaint "  to  the  Hartford  Central  against  its  ac- 
quittal, and  urged  a  reconsideration.  This  it  de- 
clined to  do,  but  protested  against  the  conclusion 
that  it  gave  its  sanction  to  any  peculiarity  of  Dr. 
Bushnell's  scheme  of  doctrine.  Its  position  was 
simply  that  of  toleration.  The  Fairfield  West  then 
addressed  a  letter  to  each  district  Association, 
except  the  Hartford  Central,  urging  them  to  meet 
and  consider  the  subject,  and  asserting  that  Dr. 
Bushnell  had  "  denied  nearly  all  that  is  precious  in 
the  Gospel  of  Christ."  Nothing  was  done  until  the 
meeting  of  the  General  Association  in  Litchfield, 
June,  1850,  when  the  following  result  was  reached 
on  a  motion  made  by  Dr.  Bushnell  himself :  — 

"  Voted,  That  we  regard  it  as  the  duty  of  any 
Association  receiving  such  a  remonstrance  to  recon- 
sider the  case  in  question,  and,  if  they  do  not 
reverse  their  former  action,  to  use  their  best  en- 


DAYS  OF  ACCUSATION  151 

deavors  to  satisfy  the  complaining  Association  in 
respect  to  their  proceedings  so  complained  of." 

The  Association  did  not  see  fit  to  "revise  its 
former  action,"  and  the  effort  to  bring  Bnshnell 
before  the  General  Association  for  trial  came  to 
naught.  It  did  not  fail  for  lack  of  persistence, 
but  chiefly  because  Congregationalism  does  not 
readily  lend  itself  to  trials  of  any  sort ;  it  is  a 
spiritual  rather  than  an  ecclesiastical  system.  The 
result  was  also  due  to  BushnelTs  own  management, 
which  was  both  adroit  and  honorable.  He  recog- 
nized his  accountability  to  his  Association,  and  by 
his  resolution  placed  himself  once  more  in  its 
hands.  A  main  element  in  the  case  was  the  fact 
that  his  brethren,  little  as  they  agreed  with  his 
views,  could  not  bring  themselves  to  believe  them 
heretical  in  substance.  Moreover,  New  Haven, 
which  had  sent  out  one  of  the  most  severe  but 
least  weighty  attacks,  had  itself  so  long  been  un- 
der charges  of  heresy  that  the  cry  had  lost  some- 
thing of  its  force.  Half  of  the  clergy  had  been 
pronounced  heretical  by  the  other  half.  That  men 
accused  of  heresy  in  regard  to  decrees  and  atone- 
ment shoidd  join  hands  with  their  accusers  in 
condemning  views  involving  a  definition  of  the 
trinity  accorded  neither  with  human  nature  nor 
common  sense.  The  atmosphere  of  Connecticut 
has  always  been  favorable  to  freedom  both  in 
State  and  Church.  Its  theologians,  a  long  list, 
were  men  of  progress,  and  the  direction  was  that 
of  sympathy  with  the  unfolding  of  society  and  with 


152  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

the  humanity  of  its  civil  institutions.  It  had  sus- 
tained D  wight  and  Taylor,  and  it  was  reluctant  to 
place  the  stamp  of  rejection  upon  a  son  whom  it 
had  bred  to  thought  and  courage.  The  victory 
won  at  this  stage  had  but  slight  theological  signi- 
ficance. Only  a  few  agreed  with  the  opinions  in 
question  ;  the  victory  was  of  a  higher  order,  —  a 
triumph  of  toleration  and  charity. 

A  quotation  from  Dr.  Bacon's  article  in  the 
"New  Englander,"  September,  1879,  p.  701,  is 
in  place  :  — 

"  It  was  with  much  more  than  ordinary  interest 
that  a  large  assembly  of  clergy  and  intelligent  laity 
listened  to  the  '  Concio  '  in  1848.  .  .  .  Nobody 
who  heard  that  sermon  could  say  that  the  preacher 
was  a  Unitarian.  Yet  there  was  room  to  ask :  Is 
he  orthodox  ?  Is  he  not  chargeable  with  danger- 
ous tendencies  ?  .  .  .  By  this  time  it  had  become 
evident  that  Dr.  Buslmell  was  not  a  Unitarian. 
But  what  was  he,  and  what  was  to  be  done  with 
him  ?  Here  was  a  strong  man,  driving  the  plough- 
share deep  into  the  subsoil  of  theology ;  and  who 
could  tell  what  would  spring  up  in  such  furrows  ? 
.  .  .  Could  he  be  refuted  ?  Certainly.  No- 
thing was  easier  than  to  refute  him  by  the  ordi- 
nary methods  of  theological  controversy.  Make 
him  responsible  for  all  possible  inferences  from 
his  language,  call  him  by  hard  names  fished  up 
out  of  the  chaos  of  post-Nicene  and  ante-Nicene 
controversies,  prove  him  guilty  of  dangerous  com- 
pHcity  with  Monothelite,  Monophysite,  Patripas- 


DAYS   OF  ACCUSATION  153 

sian,  and  Sabellian  errors ;  and  would  not  the 
refutation  be  complete  ?  " 

The  peace  thus  won  did  not  last  l$ng,  and  it 
must  be  said  that  the  cause  did  not  lie  wholly  on 
the  side  of  the  accusers.  Bushnell  had  made  an 
elaborate  defense  before  his  Association,  and  he 
had  also  read  extensively  on  the  subjects  under 
debate.  The  outcome  was  another  volume  on  the 
same  subject  under  the  title,  "  Christ  in  Theol- 
ogy," a  book  now  out  of  print. 

In  the  preface  he  disclaims  a  controversial 
purpose,  or  even  defense  of  his  doctrine,  but  his 
intention  is  rather  to  make  "  a  fuller  exposition 
of  certain  points."  The  following  quotation  reads 
like  a  caricature  of  the  theological  situation,  but 
it  was  not  only  true,  but  an  explanation  in  part 
of  Bushnell's  career  as  a  theologian.  It  was  to 
escape  from  this  dialectic  trifling  that  he  turned 
aside  in  search  of  simpler  and  more  natural  inter- 
pretations of  a  gospel  that  was  revealed  in  the 
terms  of  human  life. 

"  As  my  former  volume  was  called  '  God  in 
Christ,'  I  have  called  the  present  '  Christ  in  The- 
ology,' with  a  design  that  will  be  sufficiently  ob- 
vious. To  complete  the  descending  series  begun, 
there  is  wanted  another  volume,  showing  the  still 
lower,  and,  as  it  were,  sedimentary  subsidence  of 
theology  itself,  precipitated  hi  the  confused  mix- 
tures of  its  elements ;  a  volume  that  shall  do  upon 
the  whole  body  of  theological  opinion  in  New  Eng- 
land what  my  anonymous  friend  C.  C.  has  done 


154  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

with  such  fatal  effect  upon  the  particular  stric- 
tures of  my  adversaries.  To  see  brought  up  in 
distinct  array  before  us  the  multitudes  of  leaders, 
and  schools,  and  theologic  wars  of  only  the  cen- 
tury past,  —  the  Supralapsarians  and  Sublapsa- 
rians ;  the  Arminianizers  and  the  true  Calvinists  ; 
the  Pelagians  and  Aug*ustinians ;  the  Tasters  and 
the  Exercisers ;  Exercisers  by  divine  efficiency 
and  by  human  self -efficiency ;  the  love-to-being-in- 
general  virtue,  the  willing-to-be-damned  virtue, 
and  the  love-to-one's-greatest-happiness  virtue  ;  no 
ability,  all  ability,  and  moral  and  natural  ability 
distinguished ;  disciples  by  the  new-creating  act  of 
Omnipotence,  and  by  change  of  the  governing  pur- 
pose ;  atonement  by  punishment  and  by  expres- 
sion ;  limited  and  general ;  by  imputation  and 
without  imputation ;  trinitarians  of  a  threefold 
distinction,  of  three  psychologic  persons,  or  of 
three  sets  of  attributes  ;  under  a  unity  of  one- 
ness, or  of  necessary  agreement,  or  of  society  and 
deliberative  council :  nothing,  I  think,  woidd  more 
certainly  disenchant  us  of  our  confidence  in  sys- 
tematic orthodoxy,  and  the  possibility  in  human 
language  of  an  exact  theologic  science,  than  an 
exposition  so  practical  and  serious,  and  withal  so 
indisputably  mournful,  —  so  mournfully  indisput- 
able."     (Preface  to  Christ  in  Theology.) 

This  volume  is  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and 
interesting  produced  by  Bushnell.  While  dis- 
claiming controversy,  it  is  filled  with  the  fire  of 
battle.     Personal  antagonists  are  transfixed  by  his 


DAYS   OF   ACCUSATION  155 

pen,  not  from  malice,  but  for  necessary  illustration 
of  his  subject.  He  does  not  loiter,  as  often  was 
the  case,  loath  to  leave  his  thought,  but  rushes  on, 
—  brilliant,  sententious,  epigrammatic,  and  always 
with  a  splendid  sense  of  strength  and  vitality. 
The  memory  of  recent  experiences  runs  along  the 
pages,  so  that  while  he  is  more  careful  in  state- 
ment at  some  points,  he  is  more  audacious  in 
others.  In  no  other  work  is  there  so  much  evi- 
dence of  wide  reading,  —  enough  at  least  to  exclude 
the  reproach  of  imperfect  scholarship.  Still  the 
book  illustrates  a  peculiarity,  and,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, a  weakness  of  Bushnell  if  regarded  as  a  pro- 
fessional theologian  ;  he  not  only  wrote,  but  pub- 
lished first,  and  read  later,  with  the  result  of  a  real 
or  apparent  modification  of  his  opinions.  The  semi- 
Sabellianism  with  which  he  started  yields  some- 
what, and  the  trinity  becomes  more  than  a  method 
of  revelation.  Fearing  he  had  left  the  door  open 
to  pantheism,  lie  reexamines  the  Nicene  Creed, 
and  is  led  to  confess  that  he  "  had  not  sufficiently 
conceived  its  import."  While  there  is  a  move- 
ment of  his  mind  towards  an  immanent  trinity, 
he  stops  short,  predicating  that  "  in  some  high 
sense  indefinable,  He  is  datelessly  and  eternally 
becoming  three  "  in  order  to  come  within  finite 
apprehension.  If  here  there  is  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  immanence  of  the  trinity,  it  is  so 
related  to  revelation  that  a  way  is  left  open  for 
retreat  into  the  law  of  expression  as  contained 
in  his  theory  of  language.     That  he  so  retreated, 


156  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

there  is  no  doubt.  "  Let  us  stay  in  the  simple 
Three  of  revelation,  receiving  them,  not  as  ad- 
dressed to  our  scientific  instincts,  but  under  the 
simple  conditions  of  expression  "  (p.  120). 

Whatever  his  approaches  to  the  Nicene  state- 
ment, he  never  fully  reached  it.  If  one  cares  to 
classify  Bushnell,  it  would  be  as  ante  rather  than 
post  Nicene,  but  neither  would  signify  much.  He 
does  not  belong  to  early  theology,  either  heretical 
or  orthodox.  All  through,  in  his  writings  and  in 
his  life,  he  forces  upon  us  the  conclusion  that  there 
were  a  few  general  truths  which  he  held  half  in- 
tuitively and  wholly  by  reflection,  from  which  he 
never  substantially  departed.  His  mind  was  of  the 
intuitive  order,  and  his  strength  lay  there.  He  is 
best  seen  and  most  fairly  judged  by  his  simple  and 
large  contentions,  and  not  by  his  refinements  upon 
them.  These  primitive,  spontaneous  assertions 
made  him  a  modern  man ;  his  explanations  put 
him  back  among  those  spinners  of  theology  whose 
company  he  had  forsaken  at  the  outset ;  try  as  he 
might,  he  could  not  make  himself  at  home  among 
them.  He  belonged  half  to  the  mystics  and  half 
to  science,  and  wholly  to  lumself .  What  he  felt 
he  trusted,  and  what  he  saw  he  knew.  When  he 
speculated  he  became  uncertain,  and  finally  gravi- 
tated back  to  his  first  positions.  His  apparent 
and  almost  formal  denial  of  the  real  humanity  of 
Christ  was  due  to  his  overwhelming  sense  of  God, 
who  seemed  to  him  to  have  simply  used  humanity 
for  reaching  it.     But   he  recognized  a   suffering 


DAYS   OF  ACCUSATION  157 

humanity  in  God,  and  Christ  as  the  expression  of 
that  humanity.  Under  such  conceptions,  dispute 
over  the  subject  becomes  almost  a  logomachy. 
The  oneness  of  God  and  humanity  is  fully  implied. 
When  Bushnell  undertook  to  follow  his  keen  and 
relentless  critics,  it  was  as  though  Tennyson  had 
been  betrayed  into  a  defense  of  "  In  Memoriam." 
All  efforts  to  square  his  doctrine  of  the  trinity 
with  historic  orthodoxy  are  needless ;  we  no  longer 
think  under  such  a  restriction.  The  defect  of 
his  treatment  lay  in  his  approach  to  the  doctrine. 
If  he  had  at  first  fully  grasped  the  humanity  of 
Christ,  and  by  it  had  ascended  to  a  conception 
of  God,  he  would  have  interpreted  the  doctrine  in 
a  way  not  only  more  in  accord  with  Christ's  own 
growing  consciousness  of  his  relation  to  the  Father, 
but  also  in  better  accord  with  the  present  concep- 
tion of  humanity.1 

Bushnell  was  always  hovering  about  this  con- 
ception, but  his  Sabellian  bias  obscured  it.2 

Bushnell' s  discovery  of   his    substantial   agree- 

1  Among  the  six  principles  on  which  F.  W.  Robertson  taught, 
the  fourth  is:  "That  belief  in  the  human  character  of  Christ's 
humanity  must  be  antecedent  to  belief  in  his  divine  origin." 
(Life,  vol.  ii.  p.  160.)  Elsewhere  (p.  169)  he  says :  "  Son  of  God 
because  Son  of  Man.  .  .  .  Only  through  man  can  God  be  known ; 
only  through  a  perfect  man,  perfectly  revealed."  Again :  "  Per- 
fectly human,  therefore  divine." 

2  It  may  interest  the  reader  to  know  the  exact  form  in  which 
Bushnell  accepted  the  Nicene  Creed ;  and  as  the  book  Christ  in 
Theology  is  becoming  rare,  we  quote  from  it  (p.  178  ) :  — 

"  The  Nicene  Creed,  taking  Athanasius  for  its  interpreter,  as- 
sumes for  its  point  of  departure,  and  a  point  that  must  not  be 
moved,  the  unity  and  strict  simplicity  of  God.     It  hinges  on  the 


158  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

ment  with  the  Nicene  Creed  was  a  satisfaction  to 
him,  not  so  much  because  it  established  his  own 
orthodoxy,  as  that  it  revealed  the  heresy,  not  only 
of  his  critics,  but  of  the  entire  New  England 
School,  if  tested  by  the  Nicene  Creed,  as  will  be 
seen  from  the  following  quotation  (p.  18G)  :  "  By 
this  careful  examination  of  the  Nicene  Council, 
which  is  the  fountain  of  Church  doctrine  as  re- 
gards this  particular  subject  of  trinity,  you  have 
discovered,  I  think,  that  our  New  England  doctrine 
has  little  to  say  of  orthodoxy ;  having  itself  cast 
away  precisely  that  on  which  the  Church  doctrine 
hangs,  namely,  the  eternal  generation  and  proces- 
sion, and  affirmed  precisely  that  which  the  Church 
doctrine  denies,  namely,  a  threefold  substance  in 
the  divine  nature.     And,  as  to  myself,  while  I  have 

■word  homoousios,  commonly  translated  'one  substance,'  or  'same 
in  substance.'  And  so  rigidly  is  this  held  that  the  Word,  or  Son, 
•whatever  conception  of  his  personality  may  be  offered  in  the 
Scripture,  is  yet  declared  to  be  '  proper  to  the  substance  of  the 
Father'  and  not  another  substance.  Arius  had  affirmed  that 
the  Son  was  '  made  '  or  '  created  '  by  the  Father  ;  that  He  was  '  of 
the  will '  of  the  Father,  existing  without  or  exterior  to  the  Father. 
Against  Him  it  affirms  that  He  is  '  of  the  substance  '  of  the 
Father,  or,  as  Athanasius  declares  again  and  again  (Library  of 
the  Fathers,  pp.  232-264)  '  proper  to  the  substance  of  the  Father,' 
—  not  created,  not  of  the  will,  not  exterior.  "  Farther  on  he  so 
defines  the  phrase  "  begotten  not  made  "  as  to  embrace  it  under 
the  Logos  idea,  the  "  begotten  "  being  an  eternal  process,  and, 
like  the  radiance  of  light,  constant  and  coterminous  with  it.  On 
page  184,  speaking  of  the  Council,  while  he  "  disowns  all  their 
supposed  knowledge  of  God  .  .  .  concerning  his  internal  mode  of 
life  and  active  being,"  he  claims  that  "  they  assert  the  active  and 
strict  unity  of  God,  deny  a  trinity  in  the  divine  essence,  dis- 
cover a  trinity  grounded  in  act  as  distinct  from  essence,  and  draw 
from  the  Scripture  the  same  conception  of  the  Word  or  Logos." 


DAYS   OF  ACCUSATION  159 

as  little  care  as  possible  to  secure  a  shelter  under 
any  form  of  orthodoxy,  it  is,  I  confess,  a  most  re- 
freshing surprise  to  me  to  find  that  I  can  so  heartily 
approve  the  general  truth  of  what  I  supposed 
I  had  rejected;  and  that  I  can  welcome,  with  a 
respect  so  genuine,  the  fathers  of  a  remote  age, 
who  had  lost  their  hold  of  our  reverence,  simply 
because  we  had  lost  our  hold  of  their  meaning." 

It  may  occur  to  some  who  read  this  passage 
that  Bushnell  epitomized  in  his  own  thought  on 
the  trinity  the  history  of  the  doctrine  up  to,  and 
inclusive  of,  the  Council.  It  is  unfair,  however, 
to  transfer  his  thought  to  that  age  and  label  it 
with  its  terms,  Sabellian,  Arian,  or  Athanasian. 
The  mutatis  mutandis  can  hardly  be  accomplished, 
so  completely  does  his  thought  belong  to  himself 
and  to  his  own  day. 


CHAPTER  X 

LETTERS  ON  "GOD  IN  CHRIST,"  AND  "CHRIST 
IN  THEOLOGY" 


"  Thus,  again,  man  is  born  of  Nature  into  a  higher  nature.  He 
therefore  alone  is  possessed  of  two  natures,  —  a  lower,  in  common 
with  animals,  and  a  higher,  peculiar  to  himself.  The  whole  mis- 
sion and  life-work  of  man  is  the  progressive  and  finally  the  com- 
plete dominance,  both  in  the  individual  and  in  the  race,  of  the 
higher  over  the  lower.  The  whole  meaning  of  sin  is  the  humiliat- 
ing bondage  of  the  higher  to  the  lower.  As  the  material  evolu- 
tion of  Nature  found  its  goal,  its  completion,  and  its  significance 
in  the  ideal  man  —  the  divine  man  ;  as  spirit,  unconscious  in  the 
womb  of  Nature,  continued  to  develop  by  necessary  law  until  it 
came  to  birth  and  independent  life  in  man,  so  the  new-born  spirit 
of  man,  both  in  the  individual  and  in  the  race,  must  ever  strive  by 
freer  law  to  attain,  through  a  newer  birth,  unto  a  higher  life." 
—  Joseph  Le  Conte,  Evolution  and  its  Relation  to  Religious 
Thought,  p.  307. 


CHAPTER  X 

LETTERS    ON  "GOD  IN  CHRIST,"   AND   "CHRIST   IN 
THEOLOGY  " 

The  personal  life  of  Dr.  Bushnell  while  he  was 
engaged  in  the  preparation  and  defense  of  "  God 
in  Christ "  must  not  be  passed  by.  The  glimpses 
of  him  at  this  time,  few  but  revealing,  are  gained 
chiefly  from  his  letters  and  from  the  written  ac- 
counts of  his  friends.  His  prolific  and  self-con- 
tained mind  is  seen  in  the  easy  production  of  the 
two  volumes,  and  his  patience  under  the  storm 
they  raised  about  him.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
he  gave  his  address  at  Cambridge  on  "  Work  and 
Play,"  and  also  that  on  "  The  Founders  Great  in 
their  Unconsciousness  "  before  the  New  England 
Society  of  New  York.  These  addresses,  prepared 
while  his  professional  life  was  in  jeopardy,  revealed 
the  sources  of  his  power.  Work  may  become  play 
or  a  sort  of  music  of  the  soul  by  the  free  activity 
of  the  spirit  seeking  to  express  itself ;  and  life 
may  resolve  itself  into  poetry  as  "  the  real  and 
true  state  of  man."  One  who  thought  in  this  way 
could  not  be  greatly  vexed  by  accusations  of  heresy  ; 
or  if  they  troubled  him,  he  found  another  refuge 
in  the  Puritan  spirit  and  in  the  companionship  of 


164  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

the  Founders  of  the  State  and  the  Church  to  which 
he  belonged.  During  this  period  he  also  made  a 
notable  address  before  the  Legislature  of  the  State, 
which  he  named,  with  his  usual  skill,  a  "  Historical 
Estimate."  It  was  a  careful  review  of  the  history 
of  Connecticut,  calling  attention  to  what  was  most 
noble  in  its  history,  and  explaining  or  softening 
what  seemed  otherwise.  It  was  written  at  the 
very  time  when  the  Fairfield  West  Association  was 
most  busy  in  its  preparations  for  bringing  him 
before  the  next  General  Association.  During  this 
time,  also,  he  produced  "  The  Age  of  Homespun  " 
and  his  discourse  on  "  Religious  Music,"  which  was 
delivered  before  the  Beethoven  Society  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, at  the  opening  of  a  new  organ,  —  the  first  used 
in  the  college,  —  an  original  and  distinct  contribu- 
tion to  the  subject,  and  as  remote  in  its  spirit  from 
his  immediate  circumstances  as  a  symphony  from  the 
grinding  of  a  mill ;  it  was  like  a  hymn  out  of  chaos. 
Bushnell  was  not  indifferent  to  his  ecclesiastical 
standing,  and  he  regarded  the  whole  matter  as  one 
to  be  treated  with  dignity  and  seriousness,  but  he 
did  not  sink  himself  in  it,  nor  suffer  it  to  worry  him 
beyond  what  was  inevitable.  If  it  had  any  effect 
upon  him  intellectually,  it  was  to  add  keenness  and 
vigor  to  his  work  in  other  directions.  A  quotation 
from  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon,  bearing  on  the  two  re- 
cently published  books,  is  inserted  here,  though 
written  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  their  publica- 
tion. It  has  weight  as  coming;  from  a  man  of  great 
ability,  who  watched  the  entire  career  of  Bushnell 


LETTERS  165 

with  the  keen  eye  of  a  critic,  and  yet  with  a  breadth 
of  sympathy  that  revealed  his  own  largeness  of 
nature. 

"  My  reexamination  of  those  two  volumes,  not 
often  consulted  since  I  first  read  them,  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  and  my  recollections 
of  the  theological  and  ecclesiastical  disturbance  of 
which  they  were  the  occasion,  have  given  me  a 
new  perception  of  their  value  as  a  contribution, 
not  to  theology  only,  but  also  to  the  advancement 
of  religion.  Freely  and  thankfully  acknowledging 
their  effect  on  myself,  I  cannot  doubt  that  they 
have  had  a  similar  effect,  though  not  always  the 
same,  on  other  minds.  As  their  author  called  no 
man  Master,  so  he  founded  no  special  school  party, 
and  has  left  behind  him  no  disciples  that  call 
themselves  or  are  called  by  his  name.  But,  what 
is  better,  his  influence  embodied  in  those  volumes 
has  contributed  much  to  make  our  New  England 
theology  —  let  me  rather  say,  all  the  evangelical 
theology  of  our  English  tongue  —  less  rigidly 
scholastic,  more  scriptural,  broader  in  its  views, 
more  inspiring  in  its  relations  to  the  pulpit  and  to 
the  Christian  life.  The  one  theme  on  which  dis- 
sent from  his  doctrine  has  been  loudest  and  most 
persistent  is  the  work  of  Christ,  the  atonement. 
Yet  on  that  theme  he  has  been  an  efficient  teacher, 
even  of  many  who  protest  against  his  teachings. 
If,  in  their  understanding  of  him,  he  has  too  little 
regarded  those  illustrations  of  the  atonement  which 
theologians,  and  especially  our  New  England  theo- 


1G6  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

logians,  have  drawn  from  the  nature  of  a  moral 
government,  he  has  nevertheless  taught  even  the 
most  scholastic  and  logical  expositors  that  the  sav- 
ing work  for  which  He  who  was  at  once  the  Son 
of  God  and  the  Son  of  Man  came  into  our  human 
world  and  lived  and  died,  is  a  theme  too  large, 
too  transcendent  in  its  relations  to  the  infinite  and 
the  eternal,  to  be  illustrated  by  any  one  analogy, 
or  to  be  comprehended  and  carried  about  in  any 
formula.  It  is  increasingly  characteristic  of  Chris- 
tian thought  in  these  last  years  of  our  century  that 
the  evangelical  churches  are  turning  from  dogmas 
about  Christ  to  Christ  himself,  the  brightness  of 
the  Father's  glory,  and  the  express  image  of  his 
person."  1 

The  following  letter  is  inserted,  not  only  because 
it  states  Bushnell's  feeling  and  position  on  the 
question,  but  that  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  Con- 
gregational clergymen  of  New  England.  Those 
not  sharing  in  it  were  apt  to  be  found  in  the  ranks 
of  extreme  conservatism  in  theology. 

TO    DR.    BARTOL 

Hartford,  May  6,  1851. 
...  Is  it  not  a  hard  thing  we  have  to  do  in 
these  times,  not  to  break  out  in  a  little  excess  ? 
For  one,  I  confess  that  I  want,  about  half  the  time, 
to  do  something  that  will  require  to  be  pardoned ; 
and  I  verily  believe  that  I  shoidd,  if  I  were  not 
drawn  more  and  more  towards  the  conviction  that 
1  New  Englander,  September,  1S79,  p.  710. 


LETTERS  167 

the  renovating  power  of  true  Christianity  is  the  prin- 
cipal hope  of  man ;  and  more  and  more  deeply 
impressed  with  a  conviction  of  the  impotence  of 
all  attacks  on  sin,  that  take  the  line  of  morality 
or  mere  external  reform.  As  it  is,  I  must  and 
will  say,  as  I  have  opportunity,  that  there  are 
things  required  in  this  abominable  Fugitive  Slave 
Law  that  I  will  not  do,  —  no,  not  even  to  save  the 
Union.  I  could  cheerfully  die  to  save  it ;  but 
chase  a  fugitive  or  withhold  my  sympathy  and  aid 
from  a  fugitive  from  slavery !  —  may  God  grant 
me  grace  never  to  do  the  damning  sin  of  such 
obedience !  Nay,  I  will  go  farther.  The  first 
duty  that  I  owe  to  civil  government  is  to  violate 
and  spurn  such  a  law,  that  is,  in  the  points 
alluded  to.  .  .  . 

TO   THE   REV.    HENRY   GOODWIN1 

May  26,  1851. 
I  begin  to  think  of  giving  myself  wholly  to 
the  more  practical  side  of  religion,  and  to  practical 
duty  and  work.  I  seem  to  be  now  very  much  cut 
off  from  access  to  the  public ;  not  so,  I  trust,  from 
access  to  God.  God  is  left,  and  He  is  the  best 
public  to  me,  the  only  public  in  which  I  have  any 

1  To  no  one  was  Bushnell  under  gTeater  obligation  at  this 
crisis  than  to  Dr.  Goodwin,  excepting  Dr.  Porter,  of  Farmington, 
and  Mr.  Chesebrough  (Criticus  Criticorum).  Dr.  Goodwin,  soon 
after,  took  a  professorship  at  Olivet  College,  and  became  well 
known  by  his  writings,  and  still  more  by  the  beauty  of  his  char- 
acter. He  was  in  himself  a  true  representative,  as  he  was  the 
ablest  defender,  of  Bushnell's  theology. 


1G8  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

satisfaction ;  and  I  think  with  the  highest  delight 
of  going  apart  with  Him  into  a  desert  place  to  rest 
awhile.  No,  not  to  rest,  but  only  to  get  away  from 
noise,  and  live  in  the  silence  of  love  and  duty.  I 
long  inexpressibly,  for  the  rest  of  my  life,  to  be 
wholly  immersed  in  this  better  element ;  and  it  is 
my  daily  prayer  that  God  will  give  me  this  best 
and  most  to  be  desired  of  all  gifts,  the  gift  of  a 
private  benefit  to  be  seen  in  the  usefulness  of  my 
ministry  to  my  own  flock.  These  know  me  and 
love  me,  and  I  pray  that  God  will  enable  me  to 
lead  them  into  his  green  pastures. 

TO    DR.    BARTOL 

September  8,  1851. 

My  own  position,  as  you  will  understand,  is 
now  sufficiently  settled.  I  do  not  say  that  I  have 
converted  my  ministerial  friends  to  my  heresies, 
or  any  number  of  them.  But  the  younger  very 
generally  give  me  their  sympathy  and  stand  by 
me,  resolved  that  nothing  shall  be  done  against 
me.  And  that  is  all  I  want.  If  I  can  have  my 
position  unmolested,  it  is  all  I  can  ask. 

Nothing  is  more  beautiful,  I  sometimes  think, 
than  to  watch  the  working  of  men's  opinions, 
especially  here  in  New  England,  just  at  this  time 
that  is  passing.  The  motion  clearly  is  all  in  one 
direction,  slow,  silent,  quite  undiscovered  by  many, 
but  still  regular  and  sure.  My  hope  is  that  this 
convergence  will  in  due  time  issue  in  a  grand 
catholic   coalescence,   a   new  and   better  type  of 


LETTERS  169 

evangelism,  possible  to  be  developed  nowhere  else, 
and  a  necessary  condition  of  the  universal  triumph 
of  Christianity.  Let  us  wait,  watch,  work,  and 
take  courage. 

The  following  note  was  written  to  Mr.  Chese- 
brough,  who  seems  to  have  asked  him  to  frame  a 
creed :  — 

Hartford,  December  24,  1851. 

I  write  a  few  words  from  the  bookstore  just  to 
answer  your  note.  I  cannot  undertake  to  write 
a  creed ;  I  have  too  much  else  on  my  hands.  I 
will  barely  suggest  what  I  have  often  thought  of, 
—  no  creed  save  what  is  contained  in  the  covenant 
where  the  faith  works  (such,  for  example,  as  our 
Church  Covenant,  which  I  send  you),  with  perhaps 
something  wrought  into  it,  to  recognize  a  little 
more  directly  depravity  and  regeneration. 

This,  you  know,  was  the  Puritan  Fathers' 
method,  —  no  creed,  but  a  covenant. 

The  difficulties  in  the  way  of  bringing  Bushnell 
to  trial  and  the  stout  support  he  received  in  his 
Association  and  throughout  the  State  against  un- 
fair and  illegal  treatment  did  not  indicate  his  real 
standing  among  his  brethren.  They  would  not 
permit  him  to  be  treated  unjustly,  but  the  majority 
went  no  further.  For  years  in  his  own  city,  pulpit 
exchanges  and  cooperation  in  church  work  were 
withheld.  The  College  Chapel  and  the  churches 
in  New  Haven  were,  however,  open  to  him,  and 


170  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

he  was  in  demand  everywhere  for  stated  occasions. 
Dr.  Hawes  of  the  Centre  Church  in  Hartford 
allowed  his  opposition  to  pass  into  a  personal 
animosity  that  continued  for  years,  fed,  perhaps, 
by  rumors  of  good-natured  raillery  from  Bushnell 
that  did  not  fail  to  reach  his  ears.  Bushnell  bore 
this  aggressive  disfellowship  with  patience,  and 
strove  at  times  to  overcome  it  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, but  without  success  until  the  era  of  general 
peace  arrived. 

In  the  winter  of  1852  he  delivered  a  course  of 
lectures  on  the  Supernatural,  one  of  which  he  gave 
as  the  Dudleian  lecture  at  Cambridge  in  May. 
Meanwhile  the  Fairfield  West  Association,  moved 
by  the  second  book,  "  Christ  in  Theology,"  re- 
newed its  efforts  to  bring  him  to  trial,  in  the 
shape  of  an  appeal  to  the  ministers  of  the  State. 
Dr.  E.  P.  Parker  refers  to  it  as  follows :  — 

"  This  formidable  document  reviews  all  proceed- 
ings up  to  date,  and  contains  several  papers  not 
elsewhere  now  obtainable.  It  contains  elaborate 
and  painful  criticisms  of  Dr.  BushneU's  books  ; 
points  out  the  barrier  in  the  way  of  his  prosecu- 
tion for  heresy ;  wants  to  know  if  there  is  not 
some  way  of  securing,  not  only  his  condemnation, 
but  also  that  of  the  Association  which  has  pub- 
licly shielded  and  countenanced  his  heresies ;  and 
announces  that  Fairfield  West  will  send  delegates 
to  the  next  General  Association,  instructed  to 
present  to  that  body  suitable  questions  on  that 
subject." 


LETTERS  171 

It  met  with  "  a  solemn  protest "  in  the  body 
where  it  originated,  yet  it  was  sent  to  all  the  min- 
isters in  the  State,  and  not  without  effect.  Bush- 
nell  presented  to  the  annual  meeting  in  1852  a 
remonstrance  against  any  action  being  taken  in  his 
case,  indignantly  charging  that  it  would  convert 
"  a  body  of  fraternal  conference "  into  a  "  vigi- 
lance committee."  Nothing  came  of  the  proposed 
action  except  two  resolutions,  which  virtually  dis- 
missed it  from  the  General  Association  as  having 
no  place  there,  and  remanded  the  complainants  and 
all  concerned  to  "  our  ecclesiastical  rules." 

"  At  the  next  General  Association,  at  Danbury, 
June,  1852,  Fairfield  "West's  delegates  appeared 
with  their  questions  and  requests.  The  Protest 
by  Dr.  Linsley,  signed  by  nine  members  of  Fair- 
field West,  was  circulated  with  marked  effect. 
Dr.  Bushnell  sent  an  earnest  remonstrance  against 
any  action  of  interference  in  the  case,  saying,  how- 
ever, that  he  hoped  the  brethren  would  not  imagine 
that  he  was  at  all  anxious  for  the  result."  1 

Only  one  way  remained  by  which  Bushnell 
could  be  reached,  namely,  through  the  Consocia- 
tion. To  this  end  it  was  necessary  that  he  should 
be  presented  for  trial  by  three  members  of  his 
church,  together  with  a  certificate  from  the  pastor 
of  another  church.  No  one  could  be  found  to  do 
this,  but  in  order  to  prevent  possible  trouble  in 
this    direction,  the  church  unanimously  voted   to 

1  Rev.  E.  P.  Parker,  D.  D.,  The  Hartford  Central  Association 
and  the  Bushnell  Controversy. 


172  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

withdraw  from  the  Consociation.  That  an  adverse 
verdict  could  have  been  secured  even  then  was 
highly  improbable,  but  the  church  had  no  mind 
for  the  conflict.  Separation  from  the  Consociation 
did  not  end  the  efforts  of  his  accusers  to  bring  him 
to  trial,  but  it  narrowed  the  field  of  battle  to  a 
straight  conflict  between  the  complaining  Associa- 
tion and  the  General  Association,  where,  later  on, 
victory  was  won  in  the  form  of  a  refusal  to  present 
him  for  trial.  It  was,  however,  an  ecclesiastical, 
not  a  doctrinal  vindication.  It  reflected  the  catho- 
licity of  the  Congregational  churches  of  Connec- 
ticut, but  it  did  not  indicate  agreement  with 
BushnelTs  views  of  the  trinity  and  the  atone- 
ment. His  feeling  in  regard  to  this  very  impor- 
tant action  of  his  church  is  shown  in  the  following 
letters :  — 

TO   THE   REV.    A.    S.    CHESEBROUGH 

Hartford,  July  6,  1852. 
I  can  hardly  tell  you  how  good  it  is  to  hear 
some  one  speak  as  a  friend,  that  is,  in  the  full, 
unqualified  assent  of  confidence  and  sympathy.  I 
have  a  great  many  who  call  themselves  friends, 
and  who  would  be  hurt  if  I  were  to  call  them  by 
any  other  name  ;  I  believe  they  respect  me,  and 
mean  to  have  justice  done  me  ;  but  they  have  a 
great  many  qualifications,  some  that  are  qualifica- 
tions of  prudence,  and  have  reference  to  the  sav- 
ing of  themselves  from  unnecessary  reproach,  and 
some  that  are  really  required  by  the  partial  coin- 


LETTERS  173 

cidence  they  have  with  my  sentiments.  But  there 
are  only  a  few,  God  bless  them,  who  have  been 
ready  to  give  me  their  open,  unrestricted  sympa- 
thy, as  you  have  done,  and  in  your  letter,  despite 
the  rather  frowning  aspect  of  my  affairs,  continue 
to  do.  I  hardly  know  whether  my  "  martyrdom  " 
is  at  hand,  as  you  suggest,  or  not.  I  did  begin 
to  think  it  might  be  so ;  but  the  more  I  turn  the 
matter  about,  the  less  do  I  see  how  the  fire  is  going 
to  be  kindled.  There  is  really  no  way  left  of  coming 
at  me  now,  unless  they  attack  my  church  first,  in 
the  matter  of  their  withdrawal,  denying  their  right 
and  making  it  an  act  of  revolution,  which  I  think 
will  be  a  rather  unpopular  undertaking.  I  was  a 
good  deal  in  doubt  about  this  step ;  but  while  I 
was  deliberating,  the  matter  was  taken  out  of  my 
hands,  and  I  consented  to  let  it  be  so.  I  wish  you 
could  have  been  at  the  meeting  of  the  church.  It 
was  a  beautiful  sight,  all  in  just  the  temper  of 
calmness  and  decision  that  I  could  wish.  And 
now  the  more  I  look  at  the  matter,  the  more  I 
seem  to  see  that  it  was  of  God.  Let  us  wait  in 
God  and  see. 

TO   DR.    BAETOL 

Hartford,  July  19,  1852. 
I  am  glad  to  know  that  my  position  in  refer- 
ence to  my  ecclesiastical  adversaries  satisfies  you. 
It  is  even  the  more  welcome  to  know  that  my 
friends  whom  I  most  respect  approve  it,  that  I 
think  it    is  approved   by  God.      This,    at   least, 


174  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

has  been  my  first  and  principal  study,  and  I  feel 
the  more  confident  that  I  have  his  sanction,  that 
good  and  right-seeing  minds  are  able  to  yield  me 
theirs.  The  step  recently  taken  by  my  church  is 
theirs,  not  mine,  though  I  suppose  I  could  have 
kept  them  from  it  still,  as  I  have  done  for  the 
past  two  years,  if  I  had  seen  fit  to  exert  myself 
in  that  way.  There  was  no  need  of  such  a  step, 
because  of  any  danger  that  threatened  me,  in  case 
of  a  trial  before  the  Consociation.  I  should  have 
carried  my  point,  but  it  would  have  cost  a  whole 
year's  struggle ;  the  trial  would  have  been  a  farce, 
—  not  a  trial,  but  only  a  polling  of  votes  already 
fixed,  for  the  most  part ;  and  then  my  adversaries 
would  not  have  been  able  to  sit  down  under  their 
defeat  any  the  more  quietly.  Therefore,  I  con- 
cluded that  the  better  way  was  to  be  off,  and 
throw  myself  on  my  character  at  once.  What  now 
is  to  come  I  do  not  know,  —  something,  doubtless ; 
the  agitation  will  go  on  in  some  new  shape ;  it 
cannot  rest. 

The  heavy  labors  of  the  pulpit,  book-making, 
lecturing,  and,  above  all,  the  tax  on  his  nervous 
system  induced  by  his  ecclesiastical  experiences, 
beo-an  to  make  serious  inroads  on  his  health.  Par- 
tial  prostration  and  a  slight  hemorrhage  showed 
that  the  crisis  of  his  strong  life  had  come.  But 
the  slow  dissolving  of  the  tabernacle  revealed  his 
natural  strength,  and  the  wonder  is  that  he  did 
not  succumb  earlier,  and  that  he  lasted  so  long. 


LETTERS  175 

A  visit  to  Newport  in  August  and  to  Saratoga  in 
September  brought  no  sensible  improvement. 

In  October,  his  health  not  having  improved,  a 
longer  rest  was  deemed  necessary,  and  he  started 
on  a  trip  to  the  West  in  company  with  friends. 
It  was  hard  to  leave  his  work,  but  he  confessed 
that  "  when  his  knuckles  were  rapped  so  hard,  he 
had  no  choice  but  to  let  go."  He  spent  the  first 
Sunday  in  Oberlin  with  Dr.  Finney,  —  "a  most 
happy  and  blessed  day."  The  two  men  were  unlike, 
but  on  one  or  two  points  they  were  in  sympathy, 
and  each  felt  the  greatness  of  the  other.  Both 
also  were  enduring  the  fires  of  persecution,  —  one 
for  being  over-good  and  the  other  not  good  enough, 
but  in  each  case  on  theological  grounds.  At  a 
later  date  he  wrote  of  Finney :  — 

"  I  know  not  how  it  is,  but  I  feel  greatly  drawn 
to  this  man,  despite  the  greatest  dissimilarity  of 
tastes,  and  a  method  of  soul,  whether  in  thought 
or  feeling,  wholly  unlike.  I  said  I  knew  not  how, 
but  I  do  know.  It  is  because  I  find  God  with 
him,  and  consciously  receive  nothing  but  good  and 
genuine  (he  would  say  honest)  impressions  from 
him." 

After  a  wearisome  journey  to  Minnesota,  then 
supposed  to  be  a  region  favorable  to  weakened 
lungs,  he  returned  by  way  of  Galena,  St.  Louis,  and 
Niagara,  which  he  visited  for  the  third  time  and 
with  fresh  impressions :  — 

"  It  is  so  great  in  itself,  and  magnifies  so  won- 
derfully  the   revelation  of  its   grandeur,  that   it 


176  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

finally  conquers,  and  compels  us  at  last  to  say, 
4  There  is  nothing;  like  it,  nothing-  of  magnificence 
to  class  with  it.'  The  more  bald  it  is  in  the  matter 
of  surroundings,  the  more  magnificent,  the  better 
we  like  it.  Oh,  this  pouring  on,  on,  on,  —  exhaust- 
less,  ceaseless,  like  the  counsel  itself  of  God,  —  one 
ocean  plunging  in  solemn  repose  of  continuity  into 
another ;  the  breadth,  the  height,  the  volume,  the 
absence  of  all  fluster,  as  when  the  floods  lift  up 
their  waves  ;  the  self-confidence  of  the  preparation, 
as  grand  in  the  night  when  no  eye  sees  it  as  in  the 
day ;  still  bending  itself  downward  to  the  plunge, 
as  a  power  that  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and 
forever  ;  wanting  no  margin  of  attractions  to  com- 
plement the  scene  it  makes ;  making,  in  fact,  no 
scene,  but  doing  a  deed  which  is  enough  to  do, 
whether  it  is  seen  or  not !  Verily,  my  soul  reveled 
within  me  to-day,  as  never  since  I  was  a  conscious 
being,  in  the  contemplation  of  this  tremendous  type 
of  God's  eternity  and  majesty.  I  could  hardly 
stand,  such  was  the  sense  it  gave  me  of  the  great- 
ness of  God." 

In  the  same  letter  are  a  few  lines  that  not  only 
sum  up  his  religious  experience,  but  explain  his  the- 
ology as  well  as  anything  we  have.  The  concep- 
tion of  God  here  stated  shows  why  he  fell  into 
his  semi-Sabellian  view  of  the  trinity,  and  why, 
"  blinded  by  excess  of  light, "  he  failed  to  see  the 
absolute  humanity  of  Christ  —  seeing  only  a  reflec- 
tion of  the  face  of  God  in  him.  Bushnell  was  the 
broadest  man  of  his  day,  but  he  was  still  mastered 


LETTERS  177 

by  one  idea ;  it  held  him  like  a  passion,  and  drove 
out  everything  that  even  seemed  to  detract  from 
it.  Novalis'  phrase,  "  God-intoxicated,''  applies  to 
him  as  clearly  as  it  did  to  Spinoza.  But  what 
he  seemed  to  withhold  from  the  external  order  he 
transferred  to  God,  where  it  became  a  perfect  real- 
ity. Hence  his  patripassianism ;  Bushnell  was  not 
a  pantheist,  but  he  was  pantheistic. 

"  How  little  do  we  know  as  yet,  my  dearest 
earthly  friend,  of  what  is  contained  in  the  word 
God  I  We  put  on  great  magnifiers  in  the  form 
of  adjectives,  and  they  are  true  ;  but  the  measures 
they  ascribe,  certified  by  the  judgment,  are  not 
realized,  or  only  dimly  realized,  in  our  experience. 
I  see  this  proved  to  me,  now  and  then,  by  the  ca- 
pacity I  have  to  think  and  feel  greater  things  con- 
cerning God.  It  is  as  if  my  soul  were  shut  in  within 
a  vast  orb  made  up  of  concentric  shells  of  brass 
or  iron.  I  could  hear,  even  when  I  was  a  child, 
the  faint  ring  of  a  stroke  on  the  one  that  is  out- 
most and  largest  of  them  all ;  but  I  began  to  break 
through  one  shell  after  another,  bursting  every 
time  into  a  kind  of  new,  and  wondrous,  and  vastly 
enlarged  heaven,  hearing  no  more  the  dull,  close 
ring  of  the  nearest  casement,  but  the  ring,  as  it 
were,  of  concave  firmaments  and  third  heavens  set 
with  stars ;  till  now,  so  gloriously  has  my  experi- 
ence of  God  opened  his  greatness  to  me,  I  seem  to 
have  gotten  quite  beyond  all  physical  images  and 
measures,  even  those  of  astronomy,  and  simply  to 
think  God  is  to  find  and  bring  into  my  feeling 


178  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

more  than  even  the  imagination  can  reach.  I  bless 
God  that  it  is  so.  I  am  cheered  by  it,  encouraged, 
sent  onward,  and,  in  what  He  gives  me,  begin  to 
have  some  very  faint  impression  of  the  glory  yet  to 
be  revealed." 


CHAPTER  XI 
PASTORAL  AND  ECCLESIASTICAL  EXPERIENCES 


"  Two  things  have  set  the  church  on  fire  and  been  the  plagues 
of  it  above  oue  thousand  years  :  1.  Enlarging  our  creed,  and  mak- 
ing more  fundamentals  than  ever  God  made. 

"  2.  Composing,  and  so  imposing,  our  creeds  and  confessions  in 
our  own  words  and  phrases. 

"  When  men  have  learned  more  manners  and  humility  than 
to  accuse  God's  language  as  too  general  and  obscure,  as  if  they 
could  mend  it,  and  have  more  dread  of  God,  and  compassion  on 
themselves,  than  to  make  those  to  be  fundamentals  or  certainties 
which  God  never  made  so ;  and  when  they  reduce  their  con- 
fessions, 1.  to  their  due  extent,  and  2.  to  scripture  phrase,  that 
dissenters  may  not  scruple  subscribing,  then,  and,  I  think,  never 
till  then,  shall  the  church  have  peace  about  doctrinals.  It  seems 
to  me  no  heinous  Socinian  motion  which  Chillingworth  is  blamed 
for,  viz.,  Let  all  men  believe  the  Scripture,  and  that  only,  and 
endeavor  to  believe  it  in  the  true  sense,  and  promise  this,  and 
require  no  more  of  others ;  and  they  shall  find  this  not  only  bet- 
ter, but  the  only  means  to  suppress  heresy  and  restore  unity." 
—  Richakd  Baxter's  Works,  vol.  xxii.  p.  236. 


CHAPTER  XI 

PASTORAL   AND    ECCLESIASTICAL   EXPERIENCES 

In  1853  Bushnell  preached  a  commemorative 
sermon,  in  which  he  reviewed  his  ministry  of 
twenty  years.  Like  all  great  preachers,  he  usu- 
ally refrained  from  allusion  to  himself  in  the  pul- 
pit. His  sermons  were  immensely  charged  with 
personal  experience,  but  it  was  not  put  in  a  per- 
sonal form.  This  is  the  more  significant  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  the  accusations  made  against  him 
were  calculated  to  disturb  his  relations  to  his  peo- 
ple ;  but  he  would  not  use  his  pulpit  for  personal 
defense.  For  the  most  part,  and  in  all  the  larger 
relations  of  life,  his  fine  sense  of  propriety  was  sel- 
dom overborne  by  provocation,  or  by  opportunities 
to  strengthen  his  own  side  of  the  question.  He 
made  few  apologies  and  asked  no  favors.  But  a 
pastorate  of  twenty  years  justified  and  even  called 
for  a  review,  and  he  took  occasion  to  unbosom 
himself,  not  so  much  for  defense,  as  to  acknow- 
ledge the  affection  and  confidence  of  his  people. 

The  publication  of  his  books  —  each  more  heret- 
ical than  the  previous  one  —  had  left  him  but  a 
small  following  among  his  clerical  brethren,  but 
his  church  stood  by  him  from  first  to  last  with 
full-hearted  allegiance.     In  this  sermon,  parts  of 


182  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

which  have  been  quoted  in  previous  chapters,  he 
takes  his  people  into  his  confidence,  rehearses  the 
stages  of  his  mental  history  as  he  passed  "  into 
the  vein  of  comprehensiveness,"  tells  them  why  he 
preached  on  slavery  and  other  political  questions, 
and  why  he  wrote  "  Christian  Nurture  "  and  "  God 
in  Christ  "  and  "  Christ  in  Theology."  Of  the 
last  two  volumes  he  spoke  as  follows  :  — 

"  Regretting  some  things  which  I  had  hereto- 
fore published,  not  as  unjust  to  others,  but  as  too 
violent  in  the  manner  to  be  just  to  myself  and  the 
meekness  of  the  Christian  spirit,  I  had  determined, 
from  the  first,  to  have  no  controversy  over  these 
discourses,  —  a  determination  to  which  I  have 
resolutely  adhered,  though  perceiving,  every  day, 
the  advantage  taken  of  my  silence.  A  consider- 
able time  after  the  investigation  instituted  by  my 
brethren,  I  concluded  that  it  might  be  my  duty 
to  my  friends  and  the  churches,  as  a  contribution 
for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  not  for  controversy,  to 
publish  the  substance  of  my  argument  before  the 
Association,  which  I  did  in  a  second  volume. 
And  the  final  result  of  the  whole  matter  in  issue, 
I  think,  may  be  discovered  in  the  fact  that,  instead 
of  the  whole  bushel  of  attacks  on  my  first  volume 
which  I  gathered  up  a  few  days  ago,  no  one  article 
of  review  or  hostile  criticism  has  ever  to  this  hour 
been  published  against  a  volume  quite  as  heretical 
as  the  first,  more  adequately  stated,  and  confirmed 
in  every  point  by  appeal  to  the  accepted  standards 
of  the  church.  .  .  . 


ECCLESIASTICAL  EXPERIENCES  183 

"  You  have  been  immovable  and  true  in  your 
fidelity  to  me.  .  .  .  You  have  never  been  a  cap- 
tious people.  It  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  heard 
any  complaint  of  my  preaching  but  two  :  one,  that 
I  preach  too  long  sermons,  which  is  sometimes 
true  ;  and  the  other,  that  I  preach  Christ  too  much, 
which  I  cannot  think  is  a  fault  to  be  repented 
of ;  for  Christ  is  all,  and  beside  him  there  is  no 
gospel  to  be  preached  or  received.  .  .  . 

"  I  wish  it  were  possible,  also,  to  speak  of  the 
way  in  which  God  has  led  me  on  out  of  the  diffi- 
culties and  reserved  questions  which  encompassed 
my  early  ministry.  I  will  only  say  that  Chris- 
tianity is  opened  to  me  now  as  a  new  heaven  of 
truth,  a  supernatural  heaven,  wide  as  the  firma- 
ment, possible  only  to  faith,  to  that  luminous, 
clear,  and  glorious.  This  one  thing  I  have  found, 
that  it  is  not  in  man  to  think  out  a  gospel,  or  to 
make  a  state  of  light  by  phosphorescence  at  his 
own  centre.  He  can  have  the  great  mystery  of 
godliness  only  as  it  is  mirrored  in  his  heart  by  an 
inward  revelation  of  Christ.  Do  the  will  and  you 
shall  know  the  doctrine,  —  this  is  the  truth  I  have 
proved  by  my  twenty  years  of  experience." 

In  June,  1853,  a  third  effort  was  made  by  the 
Fairfield  West  Association  to  bring  Bushnell  to 
trial.  The  form  of  attack  was  a  demand,  signed 
by  fifty  ministers,  that  the  Hartford  Central  Asso- 
ciation be  excluded  from  the  general  body,  on  the 
ground  that  by  protecting  Bushnell  it  had  sanc- 
tioned a  scheme  which  "  is  a  corruption  of  God's 


184  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

holy  truth,  a  subversion  of  all  vital  and  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  Christianity,  and  destructive 
of  confidence  in  revelation  itself."  It  also  accused 
the  Hartford  Central  of  "  subverting  the  doctrinal 
basis  of  our  union  and  fellowship  in  the  General 
Association."  2  The  Hartford  Association  had  be- 
come aware  of  this  measure  before  the  meeting 
was  held,  and  had  prepared  a  reply  —  drawn  up 
by  Drs.  Porter  and  Patton  —  protesting  "  against 
this  invasion  of  our  rights,"  and  reaffirming  that 
Dr.  BushnelTs  opinions,  as  expressed  in  his  books, 
might  be  erroneous,  but  are  not  fundamentally  so, 
and  are  not  liable  to  the  charge  of  subverting  the 
doctrinal  basis  of  the  General  Association.  A  long 
and  bitter  debate  was  brought  to  a  close  by  an 
adroit  resolution  presented  by  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon, 
which  satisfied  the  Hartford  Central,  and  secured 
a  majority  that  defeated  the  Fairfield  West  Asso- 
ciation. The  resolution  —  an  admirable  illustration 
of  the  hindering  force  of  general  phrases  —  was 
substantially  as  follows  :  — 

"  With  the  opinions  imputed  to  Dr.  Bushnell 
by  the  complainants,  we  have  no  fellowship.  Can- 
didates for  the  ministry  who  profess  them  shoidd 
not  be  approved.  Ministers  reasonably  charged 
with  holding  them  are  properly  subject  to  disci- 
pline, in  due  form  and  order.  But  whether  these 
opinions  are  justly  imputed  to  Dr.  Bushnell,  or 
not,  depends  upon  the  construction  given  to  cer- 

1  See  Dr.  E.  P.  Parker's  pamphlet  on  The  Hartford  Central 
Association  and  the  Bushnell  Controversy,  p.  21. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  EXPERIENCES  185 

tain  quotations  from  his  books  ;  and  upon  that 
question  we  have  nothing  to  say." 

Each  sentence  was  a  door  of  escape  from  trial, 
and  the  key-word  in  each  was  so  commanding  and 
so  dear  to  Congregationalists  that  hesitation  was 
impossible.  It  was  a  triumph  of  sagacity  and 
common  sense.  Resolutions  were  then  offered  ad- 
vising the  General  Association  to  secure  a  trial  of 
Bushnell  before  a  mutual  Council,  but  they  were 
promptly  tabled.  A  protest  was  entered  against 
such  action,  as  closing  the  door  to  all  redress ;  this 
was  met  by  a  declaration  that  there  was  no  further 
need  of  action. 

The  final  effort  of  the  Fairfield  West  was  made 
the  next  year,  1854,  at  the  annual  meeting  in  New 
Haven.  Resolutions  were  introduced  requesting 
the  General  Association  "  to  cease  from  appointing 
persons  to  certify  to  the  standing  of  ministers  in 
its  connection,  and  submitting  that  if  such  certifi- 
cates are  given,  we  cannot  be  responsible  for  them." 
It  was  also  intimated  that  its  own  future  appear- 
ance in  the  body  would  depend  upon  the  adoption 
of  these  resolutions.  It  overshot  the  mark  in  this 
proposed  action,  and  the  only  question  raised  in 
the  Association  was  whether  to  table  the  resolu- 
tions, or  to  unseat  the  delegates  for  introducing  so 
destructive  and  schismatic  a  proposal.  Bushnell, 
by  an  unexpected  stroke,  opposed  either  course, 
and  urged  that  the  resolutions  "  be  entered  on 
the  records  and  published  with  the  minutes  of  the 
association."      He  supported  his  resolution  in  a 


186  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

speech  of  great  ability,  but  too  full  of  the  techni- 
calities of  the  case  to  be  of  general  interest.  They 
are  the  last  words  in  a  noisy  but  not  useless  contro- 
versy. It  not  only  enforced  a  study  of  Bushnell's 
positions,  but  those  of  the  conservative  side.  The 
re-definitions  of  orthodoxy  were  made  with  ability 
and  clearness,  but  it  is  to  be  doubted  if  they 
strengthened  the  cause  they  championed.  Bush- 
nell  won  slowly  and  never  wholly,  but  his  critics 
as  slowly  and  more  surely  lost  ground.  Both  were 
passing  on  to  a  new  order. 

The  ecclesiastical  side  of  the  controversy  is 
interesting  as  being  probably  the  last  effort  that 
will  be  made  in  New  England,  as  has  already  been 
said,  to  bring  an  author  to  trial  for  his  theologi- 
cal opinions.  Churches  may  still  call  councils  to 
advise  them  what  action  to  take  in  view  of  the 
preaching  of  the  pastor,  but  the  day  has  gone  by 
when  ecclesiastical  bodies  will  sit  in  judgment  on 
books.  The  effort  in  Bushnell's  case  did  not  reach 
a  trial ;  that  it  failed  was  due  to  several  causes, 
chief  of  which  was  the  tenuous,  elastic,  and  in- 
tensely democratic  form  of  the  Congregational 
system.  It  was  made  for  fellowship  and  spiritual 
freedom,  and  not  for  guarding  a  dogmatic  faith. 
However  it  may  have  been  used  for  enforcing  a 
formal  orthodoxy,  it  was  not  constructed  for  that 
purpose.  Its  efforts  in  securing  dogmatic  plat- 
forms have  been  neither  useful  nor  successful. 
Hence,  in  late  years,  trials  for  heresy  have  chiefly 
been  carried  on  by  the  religious  newspaper,  —  a 


ECCLESIASTICAL  EXPERIENCES  187 

faded  image  of  the  inquisition,  as  unreasoning  and 
relentless,  but  less  fatal  than  fagots.  Another 
reason  for  the  failure  was  the  invincible  common 
sense  of  the  majority  of  the  ministers  forming  the 
General  Association.  It  ran  ahead  of  their  or- 
thodoxy and  held  them  in  check.  They  did  not 
agree  with  Bushnell,  but  to  thrust  him  out  of  their 
ranks  for  making  "improvements  in  theology"  — 
a  thing  which  began  with  Edwards,  and  had  been 
going  on  ever  since,  and  in  no  place  so  rapidly  as 
at  New  Haven,  where  most  of  them  had  been  edu- 
cated—  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  Their  action, 
or  rather  refusal  to  act,  was  due  not  to  approval 
or  sympathy,  except  in  a  few  cases,  but  to  the  ab- 
surdity of  doing  otherwise.  The  result  was  also 
due  to  the  man  himself.  He  had  had  a  lesral 
training,  and  —  with  all  his  mysticism  —  he  had  a 
legal  mind.  He  planted  himself  upon  the  Congre- 
gational order,  and  his  rights  in  it  as  they  were 
defined  in  the  functions  of  the  local  Association. 
If  it  had  presented  him  for  trial,  he  would  not 
have  held  back,  but  he  neither  courted  nor  shunned 
it.  When  forced  into  the  conflict  at  the  meetings 
of  the  General  Association,  he  showed  himself  a 
stout  but  dignified  antagonist.  "We  cannot  find 
that  his  Christian  character  was  impeached  except 
in  the  form  of  accusations  of  presumption  in  han- 
dling his  great  themes,  —  a  strange  charge  to  come 
from  those  who  did  not  hesitate  to  define  the  in- 
terior nature  of  the  Godhead  as  against  one  who 
refused  to  define  it.     Bushnell  was  a  bold  and 


188  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

venturesome,  but  not  a  presumptuous  thinker ; 
nearly  every  contention  was  a  protest  against  pre- 
sumption. 

But  there  were  two  sides  to  this  controversy. 
Bushnell  was  an  accused  but  hardly  a  persecuted 
man,  as  he  himself  recognized  in  the  felicitous 
dedication  of  his  first  volume  of  sermons  to  his 
church,  "  who  have  adhered  to  me  in  days  of 
accusation."  He  had  no  reason  to  expect  other 
treatment  than  that  he  received,  and  he  came  well 
out  of  it.  One  has  only  to  recall  the  hold  dog- 
matic belief  had  on  the  clergy  and  people  of  New 
England  in  the  first  half  of  the  century,  and  the 
violence  of  Bushnell' s  attack  upon  it,  to  under- 
stand why  he  encountered  so  vigorous  criticism. 
Two  centuries  before,  the  Legislature  of  Massa- 
chusetts had  ordered  Pynchon's  book  on  the  "  Mer- 
itorious Price  of  our  Redemption  "  to  be  burned, 
and  he  himself  probably  underwent  an  analogous 
process  at  the  hands  of  Rev.  John  Norton,  who 
was  appointed  to  reply  to  it.1 

Compared  with  this,  the  treatment  of  Bushnell 

1  "  His  book  of  1650  denied  that  Christ  suffered  the  torments 
of  hell,  or  was  under  the  wrath  of  God,  or  paid  the  exact  penalty 
of  our  sins  divinely  imputed  to  him  ;  and  affirmed  that  the  price 
of  our  salvation  was  his  mediatorial  obedience,  —  the  voluntary 
offering'  of  himself,  —  which  disposed  the  Father  to  forgive  sin. 
Thoughts  similar  to  some  of  these  were  to  appear  in  a  modified 
form  in  that  conception  of  Christ's  work  which  the  younger  Jon- 
athan Edwards  was  so  successfully  to  advocate  in  the  closing; 
years  of  the  eighteenth  century,  that  it  has  become  known  as  the 
'  New  England  Theory ; '  but  New  England  was  not  ripe  for 
such  speculators  in  1050."  (Professor  Williston  Walker,  His- 
tory of  Congregational  Churches,  p.  216.) 


ECCLESIASTICAL   EXPERIENCES  189 

was  gentle,  while  his  offense  was  more  irritating. 
He  questioned  the  prevailing  orthodoxy  at  all 
points,  —  inspiration,  regeneration,  trinity,  atone- 
ment, miracles,  —  and  otherwise  challenged  the 
common  ways  of  thinking.  Criticism  so  whole- 
sale was  fully  equal  to  any  that  he  himself  encoun- 
tered, and  one  would  be  an  over-partial  advocate 
who  should  put  in  a  plea  for  sympathy.  It  was, 
indeed,  many  against  one,  but  Bushnell  knew  that 
he  was  on  the  winning  side.  Nor  was  he  careful 
to  placate  his  orthodox  brethren  by  gentle  treat- 
ment ;  he  might  have  gone  further  in  that  direc- 
tion with  good  results.  What  could  be  expected 
after  such  words  as  these  :  "  I  do  peremptorily 
refuse  to  justify  myself,  as  regards  this  matter  of 
trinity,  before  any  New  England  standard.  We 
have  no  standard  better  than  a  residuary  tritheis- 
tic  compost,  such  as  may  be  left  us  after  we  have 
cast  away  that  which  alone  made  the  old  historic 
doctrine  of  trinity  possible.  I  know  not  whether 
you  design  to  make  a  standard  for  me  of  this  de- 
cadent and  dilapidated  orthodoxy  of  ours  ;  but  if 
you  do,  then  I  appeal  to  Caesar ;  I  even  undertake 
to  arraign  your  standard  itself  before  the  tribunal 
of  history."  * 

These  are  not  irenic  words  ;  moreover,  Ins  critics 
knew  that  with  all  his  claims  of  an  older  ortho- 
doxy, the  past  belonged  to  them  rather  than  to 
him.  Bushnell  himself  did  not  claim  to  be  its 
champion  ;  he  simply  knew,  after  a  late  discovery, 

1  Christ  in  Theology,  p.  175. 


190  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

that  some  of  its  statements  of  doctrine  were  better 
than  those  made  later.  They  also  knew  that  his 
study  of  the  past  had  not  been  closer  or  more  care- 
fid  than  their  own.  Bushnell  appealed  to  the 
past  when  it  sustained  him,  but  his  reliance  was 
upon  himself.  It  was  the  modern  tone,  and  the 
suspicion  that  it  was  an  echo  from  Germany,  and 
a  presage  of  Boston  Unitarianism,  that  disturbed 
them  and  lent  urgency  to  their  complaints.  Their 
infelicities  in  method  were  not  exceptional  in  the 
ecclesiastical  world,  and  simply  followed  immemo- 
rial precedent.  It  only  remains  for  us  to  throw 
the  mantle  of  charity  over  their  unhappy  and  mis- 
guided contention,  and  one  corner  of  it  must  be 
made  to  cover  him  who  was  the  occasion  of  it. 

The  action  of  the  General  Association  in  1854 
made  it  certain  that  Bushnell  could  never  be  tried 
for  heresy.  The  relief  it  brought  to  him  may  be 
inferred  from  a  letter  to  Mr.  Chesebrough  written 
several  months  before  the  final  issue.  It  is  intro- 
duced here  as  of  possible  interest  to  those  who  may 
be  inclined  to  engage  in  the  business  of  defending 
the  kingdom  of  God  by  trying  the  authors  of  the- 
ological books  for  alleged  heresy. 

Hartford,  January  23,  1854. 
May  God  in  his  mercy  deliver  me,  so  long  as 
He  lets  me  stay  in  this  life,  from  all  this  ecclesias- 
tical brewing  of  scandals  and  heresies,  the  wire- 
pulling, the  schemes  to  get  power  or  to  keep  it, 
the  factions  got  up  to  vent  wounded  pride  and  get 


ECCLESIASTICAL  EXPERIENCES  191 

compensation  for  the  chagrin  of  defeat,  —  all,  the 
whole  from  Alpha  to  Omega,  Lord  save  me  from 
it !  The  mournful  thing  of  it  is,  that  no  man  can 
be  in  it  and  be  in  the  love  of  God.  I  think  I  am 
certain  of  it.  How  can  a  manager  in  this  field  be 
in  the  peace  also  of  the  Spirit  ?  How  can  a  heart 
burn  with  the  holy  fire  when  the  unholy  and 
earthly  is  burning  so  fiercely  in  it  ? 

The  last  phase  of  his  ecclesiastical  troubles  was 
perhaps  the  most  annoying  of  all.  A  dissatisfied 
minority  in  his  Association  withdrew  and  formed 
another  Association.  The  feeling  of  one  member 
extended  to  a  rupture  of  all  personal  relations,  but 
was  overcome  at  last  by  Bushnell's  friendly  over- 
tures   and    irenic    explanations    of   his    opinions.1 

1  The  reference  is  to  the  Rev.  Joel  Hawes,  D.  D.,  the  pastor 
of  the  Centre  Church  in  Hartford.  The  grounds  of  agreement 
stated  by  Bushnell  were  his  assent  to  the  Nicene  doctrine  of  the 
trinity,  and  to  the  "  equivalent  expression "  doctrine  of  the 
work  of  Christ  as  commonly  held  in  New  England.  Bushnell's 
sermons  frequently  indicate  his  assent  to  the  latter  doctrine, 
though  not  in  a  dogmatic  sense  ;  it  was  an  idea  to  which  any  one 
would  assent,  if  it  were  not  offered  as  a  full  theory  of  the  atone- 
ment. It  was  by  no  means  Bushnell's  doctrine  on  the  subject. 
Whether  it  was  just  to  offer  "  equivalent  expression  "  to  Dr. 
Hawes  as  a  sufficient  ground  of  orthodoxy  on  the  atonement  is  a 
question  of  casuistry  upon  which  we  shall  not  enter  further  than 
to  say  that  he  offered  all  that  was  asked,  and  withheld  what  he 
knew  would  find  no  acceptance.  Dr.  Hawes  was  equal  to  the 
occasion,  and  showed  himself  a  shrewd  and  kindly  man  by  accept- 
ing the  basis  stated  and  again  rejecting  the  book.  The  strained 
relations  gradually  came  to  an  end,  and  a  sincere  friendship  fol- 
lowed. One  is  tempted  to  imagine,  however,  that  when  they  met, 
it  was  sometimes  with  the  soothsayer's  smile.  We  could  wish 
that  the  reconciliation  had  not  involved  theology. 


192  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

More  irritating  was  the  charge  that  he  had  yielded 
to  the  pressure  and  gone  back  to  orthodoxy.  He 
refers  to  the  matter  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Bartol :  — 

Hartfokd,  June  7,  1855. 
Our  friend  Bellows,  whom  I  saw  and  dined  with 
on  my  way  to  Cuba,  told  me  quite  frankly  that  he, 
and  I  think  you  also,  were  unable  to  look  on  my 
letter  of  reconciliation  with  Dr.  Hawes  as  being 
less  than  a  recantation.  This  quite  surprised  me, 
for  Hawes  himself  looks  upon  it  in  no  such  man- 
ner, and  all  the  notices  I  have  seen  from  my  or- 
thodox friends  —  I  don't  say  my  orthodox  enemies, 
—  have  said  plainly  that  my  letter  is  no  recanta- 
tion, or  in  any  wise  different  from  the  published 
sentiments  of  my  books.  I  think  you  have  fallen 
into  this  error  by  not  attending  as  closely  as  you 
might  to  certain  references,  and  taking  Hawes' 
construction  of  some  things,  where  he  goes  beyond 
them. 

The  charge  of  recantation  was  not  strange,  but 
it  was  unjust.  It  is  possible  that  it  was  due  in 
part  to  disappointment  over  what  was  considered 
Bushnell's  tendency.  He  certainly  cut  off  all  ex- 
pectation that  he  would  enter  the  Unitarian  ranks. 
But  his  acceptance  of  the  Nicene  doctrine  of  the 
trinity  was  not  a  denial  or  recall  of  what  he  had 
said,  but  only  a  qualification.  He  had  discovered 
what  it  meant,  and  reinterpreted  it  in  his  own 
broad  way.     The  Unitarians  were  still  reading  it 


ECCLESIASTICAL  EXPERIENCES  193 

in  the  light  of  their  Arian  sympathies,  and  had 
not  learned  to  regard  it  as  a  protest  and  break- 
water against  Eastern  polytheism,  and  as  an  asser- 
tion of  the  oneness  of  God  and  humanity,  —  a  view 
of  it  that  did  not  escape  such  men  as  Drs.  Fred- 
erick Hedge  and  James  Walker,  the  foremost 
theologians  in  the  Unitarian  communion. 


CHAPTER  XII 
SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH 


"  It  would  not  answer  even  for  the  Christian  who  has  meant  to 
surrender  his  will,  and  really  wants  to  be  perfected  in  the  will  of 
God,  to  be  made  safe  in  his  plans  and  kept  in  continual  train  of 
successes.  He  wants  a  reminder  every  hour ;  some  defeat,  sur- 
prise, adversity,  peril ;  to  be  agitated,  mortified,  beaten  out  of  his 
courses,  so  that  all  remains  of  self-will  in  him  may  be  sifted  out 
of  him,  and  the  very  scent  of  his  old  perversity  cleared.  0,  if 
we  could  be  excused  from  all  these  changes  and  somersets,  and 
go  on  securely  in  our  projects,  it  would  ruin  the  best  of  us.  Life 
needs  to  be  an  element  of  danger  and  agitation,  —  perilous, 
changeful,  eventful ;  we  need  to  have  our  evil  will  met  by  the 
stronger  will  of  God,  in  order  to  be  kept  advised,  by  our  experi- 
ence, of  the  impossibility  of  that  which  our  sin  has  undertaken. 
It  would  not  even  do  for  us  to  be  uniformly  successful  in  our 
best  meant  and  holiest  works,  our  prayers,  our  acts  of  sacrifice, 
our  sacred  enjoyments  ;  for  we  should  very  soon  fall  back  into 
the  subtle  power  of  our  self-will,  and  begin  to  imagine,  in  our 
vanity,  that  we  are  doing  something  ourselves.  Even  here  we 
need  to  be  defeated  and  baffled,  now  and  then,  that  we  may  be 
shaken  out  of  our  self-reliance  and  sufficiency,  else  the  taste  of 
our  evil  habit  remains  in  us,  and  our  scent  is  not  changed."  — 
Bushnkll,  Sermons  for  the  New  Life,  p.  420. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SEARCH   FOR   HEALTH 

Bushnell,  though  a  man  of  great  physical 
strength  and  vigor,  was  an  invalid  nearly  half  his 
life.  We  find  him  in  1839  "  complaining  again  of 
throat  trouble,"  and  visiting  Saratoga  for  relief. 
But  not  till  1845  did  the  breakdown  actually  come. 
A  journey  to  North  Carolina  in  April  failed  to 
bring  relief,  and  a  year  in  Europe  was  determined 
on  and  provided  for  by  his  church.  He  sailed 
in  July,  and  landed  in  Falmouth  after  a  voyage 
of  twenty  days.  He  followed  the  usual  route  of 
American  tourists  in  Europe,  —  through  England 
and  the  Scotch  lakes,  Belgium,  the  Rhine,  Switzer- 
land, Italy,  Geneva,  Paris,  a  prolonged  stay  in 
London,  where  he  did  some  literary  work,  and  a 
return  home  in  June.  He  saw  what  the  ordinary 
tourist  sees,  and  much  beside,  —  the  real  meaning 
and  charm  of  the  art  and  music  and  architecture 
and  scenery  that  fell  in  his  way.  At  Heidelberg 
he  first  suspected  from  certain  symptoms  that  he 
might  be  the  victim  of  consumption.  It  cost  him 
a  temporary  struggle,  —  not  a  strange  thing  in  a 
man  of  forty-three,  —  but  he  found  "rest  in  God," 
and  went  about  his  sightseeing  with  his  usual  irre- 


198  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

pressible  vigor.  He  saw  everything  in  a  moral 
light,  bnt  his  canons  were  broad.  Of  the  castles 
on  the  Rhine  he  says :  "  Joy  be  to  their  ruins !  Let 
them  stand  for  all  the  coming  ages  as  a  monument 
of  a  day  when  there  was  no  law."  On  the  slope  of 
the  Scheideck  he  tried  a  wayside  wooden  trumpet, 
and  in  its  echoes  found  the  text  for  a  passage 
in  the  address  on  "Religious  Music,"  which  Mr. 
E.  P.  Whipple  pronounced  one  of  the  most  elo- 
quent in  the  language.  Of  Mont  Blanc  he  says 
that  "  it  sleeps  on  its  base."  He  does  not  com- 
plain of  clouds  or  the  intervening  hills.  "  I  have 
observed  a  hundred  times  that  the  sublime  requires 
the  unknown  as  an  element.  A  cathedral  should 
never  be  finished.  A  mountain  should  be  par- 
tially hidden  by  others  or  enveloped  in  clouds." 
He  rejoiced  in  the  avalanches  on  the  Jungfrau : 
"  One  is  not  fairly  still  before  another  comes ;  the 
ice-thunder  is  never  over,  and  the  sense  of  eternity 
is  added  to  the  sense  of  power.  Far  up  in  the 
cloud  region,  yet  on  earth,  we  hear  the  tumult  of 
the  frost  giants  waging  the  perpetual  battle."  He 
attends  the  meagre  service  at  the  cathedral  in 
Geneva,  and  questions  if  "  this  falling  off  is  not  the 
penalty  of  Calvin's  intolerant  spirit."  The  cathe- 
dral in  Milan  "  is  a  marble  mountain  hewn  into  a 
forest  of  spires  and  statues."  In  the  Pitti  gallery 
he  notes  that  "  the  painters  and  sculptors  derived 
their  arts  from  their  trades,  .  .  .  the  law  of  all 
healthful  growth  in  the  fine  arts."  He  admires  yet 
misunderstands  Michael  Angelo,  as  "wanting  in 


SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH  199 

that  delicate  sensibility  necessary  to  a  complete  and 
universal  sense  of  beauty,"  —  a  singular  verdict,  for 
the  two  men  were  largely  endowed  with  the  very 
quality  deemed  lacking.  Michael  Angelo's  Moses 
is  a  Pluto,  "  an  eminently  unreligious  statue."  Of 
the  Transfiguration  he  says  :  "  The  supernatural 
is  here  clothed  in  the  natural,  the  spiritual  in 
the  terms  of  physics."  He  does  not  take  the 
conventional  view  of  the  French.  "  The  volatile 
Frenchman,  always  a  proverb,  I  have  not  seen." 
In  London  he  encountered  the  "  Oregon  question," 
then  a  matter  of  boundary  and  strained  relations 
between  the  two  countries,  on  which  he  wrote  an 
effective  letter ;  he  hoped  the  two  nations  would 
not  go  to  war  "  for  the  sake  of  a  territory  so  worth- 
less," for  such  was  the  estimate  then  put  on  Ore- 
gon. Here  also  he  preached  and  published  his 
sermon  on  "  Unconscious  Influence."  The  ves- 
pers at  the  Abbey  led  him  to  "  the  firm  conclusion 
that  if  I  were  to  be  an  Episcopalian,  I  would  cer- 
tainly have  the  liturgy  sung  or  chanted." 

Of  his  three  months  in  London,  he  said  it 
proved  to  be  "  just  the  thing  I  wanted.  It  does 
not  crush  me  or  anything  like  that,  but  it  shows 
me  what  a  speck  I  am.  Anything  that  makes  us 
know  the  world  better,  and  our  relations  to  it,  the 
ways  of  reaching  mankind,  what  popularity  is 
worth,  how  large  the  world  is,  and  how  many  things 
it  takes  to  fill  it  with  an  influence,  —  anything 
which  sets  a  man  practically  in  his  place,  is  a  men- 
tal good,  a  good  of  manners,  of  feeling,  —  dignity 
itself." 


200  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

He  reached  home  in  June,  apparently  in  greatly 
improved  health,  and  plunged  at  once  into  work 
both  in  his  church  and  outside  of  it,  in  the  way  of 
public  addresses  and  book-making.  His  personal 
appearance  at  this  time  is  thus  described  :  "  The 
spare,  sinewy  figure,  tense  yet  easy  in  its  motions  ; 
the  face,  then  smoothly  shaven,  showing  delicate 
outlines  about  the  cordial,  sweet-tempered  mouth ; 
the  high,  broad  forehead,  straight  to  the  line  where 
it  was  swept  by  the  careless  hair,  just  streaked 
with  gray  ;  the  kindling  gray  eyes,  deep-set  under 
beetling  black  eyebrows  ;  and,  above  all,  the  abrupt 
yet  kindly  manner,  indicating  in  its  unaffected 
simplicity  a  fund  of  conscious  power." 

"  The  Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things "  was  soon 
under  way  in  the  shape  of  sermons.  "  Christian  Nur- 
ture "  in  its  complete  form  followed,  but  came  to 
publication  first.  The  floods  of  accusation  rose  at 
once,  and  continued  to  flow  for  years,  with  brief 
intermissions  and  increasing  volume.  Under  the 
combined  stress  of  his  incessant  labors  with  pen 
and  voice,  and  fret  over  the  efforts  to  bring  him  to 
trial,  —  always  unavailing,  as  we  have  seen,  but 
still  harassing,  —  it  is  not  strange  that  his  already 
impaired  health  began  to  call  for  rest  and  change. 
In  1852  he  made  a  two  months'  journey  to  the 
West,  going  as  far  as  St.  Louis.  The  next  year 
he  spent  his  summer  vacation  in  Sharon  Springs, 
and  returned  to  throw  himself  into  the  work  of 
securing  a  public  park  in  his  city.  The  next  year, 
1854,  brought  an  end  to  controversy,  but  an  at- 


SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH  201 

tack  of  bronchitis  left  him  in  such  a  condition 
of  health  that  he  was  driven  to  seek  a  milder 
climate.  He  spent  three  months  in  Cuba,  and 
returned  in  April,  1855,  hardly  better  than  when 
he  went  away.  He  spent  the  summer  among  his 
native  hills,  making  notes  on  the  "  Supernatural," 
which  in  the  winter  he  put  into  such  shape  that  it 
could  not  be  lost.  March  of  the  next  year  found 
him  en  route  for  California,  where  he  remained, 
chiefly  at  the  San  Jose  Mission,  during  the  remain- 
der of  the  year.  His  life  here  was  characteristic 
to  the  last  detail. 

He  threw  himself  into  the  life  of  the  new  State 
with  the  zest  of  a  boy  and  the  wisdom  of  a  states- 
man. First  of  all,  he  studied  the  climate,  that 
being  his  first  concern.  He  is  sure  that  one  in 
search  of  health  "  should  set  off,  not  for  Europe,  but 
for  California "  (The  New  Englander,  February, 
1858).  No  problem  in  his  "  Moral  Uses  of  Dark 
Things  "  is  more  carefully  worked  out  than  that  of 
the  way  in  which  ocean  currents,  mountain  ranges 
and  passes,  trend  of  valleys  and  sweep  of  winds,  and 
many  other  physical  causes  unite  to  produce  "  the 
varieties  and  incredible  anomalies  of  the  California 
climates." 

The  variety  of  his  studies  and  interests,  espe- 
cially in  engineering  and  topography,  reminds  one 
of  Da  Vinci.  If  Bushnell  had  a  passion  outside 
of  theology,  it  was  for  roads,  and  he  closely  con- 
nected the  two ;  the  new  country  afforded  him  a 
wide  field  for  each.      He  was  a  critic  of  all  he 


202  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

saw  with  the  eye,  and  a  builder  in  imagination 
of  such  as  were  needed  or  were  possible.  He 
foresaw  a  railroad  across  the  continent,  —  hardly 
dreamed  of  as  yet,  —  and,  having  examined  all 
feasible  routes  of  entrance  into  San  Francisco, 
named  the  one  that  was  finally  chosen.  He  found 
the  city  under  the  reign  of  the  famous  vigilance 
committee,  which  he  half  indorsed,  though  it  went 
against  his  instinctive  sense  of  law  and  order. 
He  wrote  letters  to  the  papers  and  preached  in  his 
usual "  vein  of  comprehensiveness,"  hoping  to  guide 
public  sentiment  in  the  right  direction.  He  seems 
never  for  a  moment  to  have  been  idle  in  mind  or 
body.  He  took  up  his  residence  in  San  Jose 
Mission,  in  the  Santa  Clara  valley,  near  the  base  of 
Mount  Hamilton,  where  he  soon  began  to  gain  sen- 
sibly in  health.  Every  mile  within  a  radius  of 
twenty  of  this  beautiful  region  was  gone  over  with 
the  eye  of  a  surveyor,  an  engineer,  a  naturalist,  a 
poet,  and  a  philanthropist.  He  was  already  well 
known  to  his  clerical  brethren,  —  an  able  body 
of  men,  —  and  they  at  once  turned  to  him  as  a 
natural  leader  in  their  recently  formed  project  for 
establishing  a  college.  Bushnell  gave  himself  to 
this  enterprise  with  immense  energy  and  thorough- 
ness, and  after  personal  examination  of  seven  pro- 
posed sites,  named  Berkeley,  where  the  College, 
later  the  University  of  California,  now  stands. 
The  presidency  was  offered  to  him,  and  declined  on 
the  ground  that  his  health  was  so  far  recovered 
that  he  was  able  to  serve  his  parish,  to  which  he 


SEARCH  FOR  HEALTH  203 

felt  that  he  owed  a  prior  allegiance.  Dr.  Henry 
A.  Stimson  refers  to  this  episode  as  follows  :  — 

"  Horace  Bushnell,  a  stranger  and  an  invalid  as 
he  was,  left  an  enduring  impress  upon  what  is  now 
the  great  University  of  California.  When  called 
in  1856  to  the  presidency  of  the  college  that  was 
to  be,  he,  seemingly  the  last  man  for  such  duties, 
gave  himself  to  the  practical  details  of  seeking  a 
site  with  the  proper  requirements  of  soil,  situation, 
water  supply,  etc.,  while  he  aroused  the  interest 
of  that  gold-seeking  community  to  the  needs  of 
the  future.  '  If  I  can  get  a  university  on  its  feet, 
or  only  the  nest-egg  laid,'  he  wrote  to  his  distant 
Eastern  friends,  '  I  shall  not  have  come  to  this 
new  world  in  vain.'  "  1 

While  at  San  Jose  Mission,  Bushnell  finished 
"  Nature  and  the  Supernatural,"  and  projected 
another  work  on  the  "  Laws  of  Grace,  or  Laws  of 
the  Supernatural."  Such  a  book,  if  written,  would 
have  led  him  hito  the  realm  of  his  deepest  insight. 

"  Laws  are  the  alphabet  of  our  knowledge  on 
the  footing  of  nature.  So  far,  God  will  show  us 
his  way  and  conduct  us  into  his  will.  .  .  .  Laws 
are  not,  therefore,  broken  up  by  the  specialties  of 
faith,  but  are  only  transcended.  Or  rather  we 
may  say  that  we  are  now  exploring  and  searching 
out  the  higher  laws  of  God,  even  those  of  his  per- 
sonal society  and  goodness." 

On  his  return  to  Hartford  in  January,  1857, 
he  preached  a  notable  sermon  on  "  Spiritual  Dis- 
1  Eeview  of  Beviews,  July,  1899,  p.  453. 


204  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

lodgments,"  from  a  characteristically  chosen  text, 
"  Moab  .  .  .  hath  settled  on  his  lees,"  etc.,  put- 
ting the  long  separation  between  pastor  and  peo- 
ple to  the  highest  spiritual  uses.  He  once  more 
plunged  into  work  as  though  he  were  a  sound  man, 
but  the  "  predurable  toughness  "  was  gone.  He 
"  dreaded  a  long  pull,"  but  could,  not  make  "  short 
designs."  Treatises  as  well  as  sermons  were  always 
in  his  mind.  He  soon  brought  out  the  volume 
"  Sermons  for  the  New  Life,"  keeping  back  "  Na- 
ture and  the  Supernatural "  for  closer  revision, 
—  a  wiser  course  than  he  knew,  for  the  sermons 
by  their  great  popularity  prepared  the  way  for 
the  treatise.  Indeed,  his  sermons  always  plead 
against  any  suspicion  of  heresy.  So  far  as  they 
were  used  by  his  critics,  they  were  quoted  for  their 
orthodoxy  in  order  to  bring  out  his  inconsistency, 
which  led  Bushnell  to  write  :  "I  am  brewing  now  a 
new  heresy,  which,  if  God  spares  my  life,  I  shall 
certainly  give  to  the  world,  even  if  I  must  die  in 
the  smoke  of  it." 

In  May,  1858,  his  people  sent  him  away  for  a 
needed  rest,  and  set  about  finding  an  associate  pas- 
tor, as  his  health  gave  no  promise  of  improvement. 
This  position  was  filled  successively  by  Rev.  C.  D. 
Helmer,  Rev.  G.  N.  Weber,  D.  D.,  and  Rev. 
George  B.  Spalding,  D.  D.,  —  Bushnell  preaching 
often  in  the  intervals  between  them.  In  the  spring 
of  1859  he  resigned  his  pastorate,  and  in  July 
started  with  his  wife  for  Minnesota,  spending  the 
winter  chiefly  at  St.  Anthony's  Falls.      His  cor- 


SEARCH   FOR   HEALTH  205 

respondence  at  this  time  is  rich  in  apt  and  profound 
generalizations  of  experience  :  "  We  can  do  any- 
thing or  bear  anything  with  a  good-will,  if  it  is  only 
necessary."  "  There  is  no  teaching  so  good  as 
that  which  we  get  in  the  solid  training  of  works 
and  duties."  "  Put  yourself  on  the  footing  of  sac- 
rifice." "  Nothing  is  clear  which  is  not  cleared  by 
the  Spirit." 

In  April,  1860,  he  left  the  West  somewhat  invig- 
orated, stopping  at  Clifton  Springs  for  three  months 
and  returning  for  the  winter,  where  he  prepared 
for  republication  "  Christian  Nurture,"  and  the 
tenth  chapter  of  "  Nature  and  the  Supernatural," 
under  the  title  of  the  "  Character  of  Jesus." 

It  is  sometimes  said  of  Bushnell  that  he  was  a 
restless  and  impetuous  thinker,  rushing  from  one 
subject  to  another  on  some  slight  impulse.  It  is 
not  quite  true ;  he  was  a  busy  thinker,  but  not  a 
restless  one,  nor  did  he  start  hastily  on  new  quests. 
It  is  characteristic  of  him  that  all  his  leading  con- 
tentions had  their  genesis  early  in  his  career,  and 
were  almost  never  absent  from  his  thoughts.  It 
was  at  this  time  that  he  wrote :  "  Instead  of  work- 
ing at  any  oracle  of  my  own,  I  let  time  chew  my 
question  for  me,  and  am  simply  looking  on.  This 
habit  has  grown  out  of  my  theologic  habit  of  re- 
ferring questions  I  cannot  answer  to  the  same 
arbitrament." 

He  returned  to  Hartford  in  April,  1861, 
gathered  his  family  about  him,  and  made  no  more 
lengthened  journeys  in  search  of  health.     He  was 


206  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

a  confirmed  invalid,  but  by  no  means  a  broken- 
down  man.  Nearly  half  of  his  work  of  publica- 
tion was  done  after  this  time,  and  if  any  of  it 
bears  the  marks  of  disease,  they  are  not  signs  of 
weakness,  but  of  moral  and  spiritual  ripeness. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL" 


"  The  grandest  natural  agencies  are  but  servitors  of  a  grander 
than  themselves.  Using  nature  as  his  organ,  he  transcends  it ; 
the  act  in  which  he  does  so  is  the  exercise  of  his  own  Free  Voli- 
tion, rendering  determinate  what  was  indeterminate  before :  it 
is  thus  the  characteristic  of  such  acts  to  be  supernatural ;  and 
Man,  so  far  as  he  shares  a  like  prerogative,  occupies  a  like  posi- 
tion ;  standing  to  that  extent  outside  and  above  the  realm  of 
natural  law,  and  endowing  with  existence  either  side  of  an  alter- 
native possibility.  At  both  ends,  therefore,  of  the  scheme  of 
Cosmical  order,  are  beings  that  go  beyond  it ;  all  that  is  natural 
lies  inclosed  within  the  supernatural,  and  is  of  the  medium 
through  which  the  Divine  mind  descends  into  expression  and 
the  Human  ascends  into  interpreting  recognition. "  —  James 
Martineau,  Nature  and  God,  vol.  iii.  pp.  147,  148. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

"  NATURE   AND   THE    SUPERNATURAL  " 

"Nature  and  the  Supernatural,"  Bushnell's 
most  thorough  and  complete  treatise,  was  the 
fruit  of  that  kind  of  study  which  he  gave  to  all 
subjects,  —  close  observation  and  brooding  thought. 
It  might  be  said  of  him  that  from  first  to  last  he 
thought  of  little  else  than  the  relation  between 
these  two  terms.  He  was  well  fitted  for  this  dis- 
cussion in  himself  ;  the  whole  play  of  his  mind  had 
this  double  cast  of  natural  and  supernatural.  But 
the  conception  of  nature  that  was  taking  shape 
struck  in  him  a  responsive  chord.  The  reign  of 
law  had  already  laid  hold  of  him,  and  his  own 
experience  furnished  data  for  the  complementary 
thought.  In  1853  we  find  him  saying  that  "the 
supernatural  is  the  necessary  complement  of  na- 
ture ;  .  .  .  my  mind  turns  naturally  in  this  direc- 
tion." But  he  did  not  enter  an  untrodden  path. 
He  had  read  Edwards  carefully  enough  to  see  that 
he  cared  little  for  miracles  in  comparison  with 
spiritual  experiences.1     Schleiermacher  and  Cole- 

1  "  The  greatest  privilege  of  the  prophets  and  apostles  was 
not  their  being  inspired  and  working  miracles,  but  their  eminent 
holiness.  The  grace  that  was  in  their  hearts  was  a  thousand  times 
more  than  their  dignity  and  honor,  than  their  miraculous  gifts." 
(Edwards'  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  557.) 


210  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

ridge,  the  only  writers  who  greatly  influenced  him, 
—  one  teaching  that  "  miracles  are  not  a  com- 
ponent element  in  our  faith  in  Christ,"  the  other 
that  "  miracles  of  themselves  cannot  work  con- 
viction in  the  mind,"1  —  had  furnished  hints  he 
was  not  slow  to  follow.  But  a  special  incentive 
came  from  a  prevalent  treatment  of  nature  which 
he  calls  "  Naturalism,"  and  characterizes  as  "  the 
new  infidelity." 

The  book  opens  by  calling  attention  to  the 
"  primitive  habit  of  mind  "  which  led  men  "  to  be- 
lieve in  that  which  exceeds  the  mere  terms  of 
nature  ;  "  "  everything  was  supernatural."  This 
tendency  was  met  in  Greece  by  the  Sophists,  who 
resolved  the  myths  of  religion  into  natural  history, 
a  process  to  which  the  Sadducees  were  subjecting 
Judaism  at  the  time  of  Christ.  This  raises  the 
question  whether  "  Christianity  will  not  experi- 
ence the  same  fate." 

"  From  the  first  moment  or  birth-time  of  modern 
science,  if  we  could  fix  the  moment,  it  has  been 
clear  that  Christianity  must  ultimately  come  into 
a  grand  issue  of  life  and  death  with  it,  or  with 
the  tendencies  embodied  in  its  progress.  Not 
that  Christianity  has  any  conflict  with  the  facts 
of  science,  or  they  with  it.  On  the  contrary,  since 
both  it  and  nature  have  their  common  root  and 
harmony  in  God,  Christianity  is  the  natural  foster- 
mother  of   science,  and  science  the  certain  hand- 

1  Professor  George  P.  Fisher,  D.  D.,  History  of  Doctrine,  pp. 
508,448. 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  211 

maid  of  Christianity.  And  both  together,  when 
rightly  conceived,  must  constitute  one  complete 
system  of  knowledge.  But  the  difficulty  is  here  : 
that  we  see  things  only  in  a  partial  manner,  and 
that  the  two  great  modes  of  thought,  or  intellectual 
methods,  —  that  of  Christianity  in  the  supernat- 
ural department  of  God's  plan,  and  that  of  science 
in  the  natural,  —  are  so  different  that  a  collision 
is  inevitable  and  a  struggle  necessary  to  the  final 
liquidation  of  the  account  between  them ;  or,  what 
is  the  same,  necessary  to  a  proper  settlement  of 
the  conditions  of  harmony  "  (p.  19). 

After  reviewing  the  various  forms  under  which 
naturalism  —  which  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
nature  — is  sapping  the  foundations  of  Chris- 
tianity, some  of  which  still  hold  good,  while  others 
have  lost  their  significance,  he  states  his  purpose, 
which  is  "  to  find  a  legitimate  place  for  the  super- 
natural in  the  system  of  God,  and  show  it  as  a 
necessary  part  of  the  divine  system  itself.  .  .  . 
The  world  was  made  to  include  Christianity ;  under 
that  becomes  a  proper  and  complete  frame  of 
order ;  to  that  crystallizes,  in  all  its  appointments, 
events,  and  experiences  ;  in  that  has  the  design  or 
final  cause  revealed,  by  which  all  its  distributions, 
laws,  and  historic  changes  are  determined  and 
systematized."  l 

1  "Even  the  coming  of  God  in  Christ  is  not  contrary  to  the 
fundamental  constitution  and  laws  of  the  universe,  but  rather 
the  consummation  of  the  continuous  action  of  God  immanent  in 
the  universe  and  ever  coming  near  to  man  in  the  courses  of  hu- 
man history."  (Professor  Samuel  Harris,  D.  D.,  God  the  Creator 
and  Lord  of  All,  vol.  ii.  p.  493. ) 


212  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

We  have  here  a  foreshadowing  of  the  interpre- 
tation which  Christian  thought  is  now  putting  on 
Evolution  as  involving  an  ethical  purpose  and  end 
in  creation.  Bushnell  was  as  much  of  an  evo- 
lutionist as  he  could  be  in  his  day.  Agassiz's 
classification  of  species  was  the  limit  of  his  scien- 
tific acceptance  of  it,  but  there  were  times  when 
his  insight  into  the  nature  of  things  took  him  fur- 
ther into  the  great  law  that  soon  came  to  dominate 
all  thought,  — as  when  he  says  that  "  there  is,  in 
the  whole  of  tilings  called  nature,  an  about-to-be, 
a  definite  futurition,  a  fixed  law  of  coming  to  pass, 
such  that,  given  the  thing,  or  whole  of  things, 
all  the  rest  will  follow  by  an  inherent  necessity. 
In  this  view,  nature  ...  is  that  created  realm  of 
being  or  substance  which  has  an  acting,  a  going 
on  or  process  from  within  itself,  under  and  by  its 
own  laws  "  (p.  36). 

But  nature  is  not  the  universe.  "  God  has 
erected  another  and  higher  system,  that  of  spirit- 
ual being  and  government,  for  which  nature  ex- 
ists ;  a  system  not  under  the  law  of  cause  and 
effect,  but  ruled  and  marshaled  under  other  kinds 
of  laws  and  able  continually  to  act  upon,  or  vary 
the  action  of  the  processes  of  nature.  If,  accord- 
ingly, we  speak  of  system,  this  spiritual  realm  or 
department  is  much  more  properly  called  a  system 
than  the  natural,  because  it  is  closer  to  God, 
higher  in  its  consequence,  and  contains  in  itself 
the  ends  or  final  causes,  for  which  the  other  ex- 
ists and  to  which  the  other  is    made  to  be  sub- 


'  "NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  213 

servient.  There  is,  however,  a  constant  action 
and  reaction  between  the  two,  and,  strictly  speak- 
ing, they  are  both  together,  taken  as  one,  the  true 
system  of  God  "  (p.  38). 

In  singular  agreement  with  Martineau  (on  our 
prefatory  page),  who,  however,  wrote  later,  he 
asserts  "  that  the  moment  we  begin  to  conceive 
ourselves  rightly,  we  become  ourselves  supernatu- 
ral. ...  In  ourselves  we  discover  a  tier  of  ex- 
istences that  are  above  nature  and,  in  all  their 
most  ordinary  actions,  are  doing  their  will  upon 
it.  The  very  idea  of  our  personality  is  that  of  a 
being  not  under  the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  a 
being  supernatural "  (p.  43). 

He  thus  lays  down  the  fundamental  position  of 
his  treatise ;  namely,  "  that  nature  is  that  world 
of  substance  whose  laws  are  laws  of  cause  and 
effect,  and  whose  events  transpire,  in  orderly  suc- 
cession, under  those  laws ;  the  supernatural  is 
that  range  of  substance,  if  any  such  there  be,  that 
acts  upon  the  chain  of  cause  and  effect  in  nature 
from  without  the  chain,  producing,  thus,  results 
that,  by  mere  nature,  could  not  come  to  pass.  It 
is  not  said,  be  it  observed,  as  is  sometimes  done, 
that  the  supernatural  implies  a  suspension  of  the 
laws  of  nature,  a  causing  them,  for  the  time,  not 
to  be,  —  that,  perhaps,  is  never  done,  —  it  is  only 
said  that  we,  as  powers,  not  in  the  line  of  cause 
and  effect,  can  set  the  causes  in  nature  at  work, 
in  new  combinations  otherwise  never  occurring, 
and  produce,  by  our  action  upon  nature,  results 


214  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

which  she,  as  nature,  could  never  produce  by  her 
own  internal  acting  "  (p.  43). 

Two  things  are  to  be  noticed  here,  —  that  the 
supernatural  does  not  imply  a  suspension  of  the 
laws  of  nature,  and  that  man  is  a  supernatural 
being.  The  latter  rests  on  personality,  and  this 
on  the  will.  The  air  in  New  England  was  still 
too  full  of  the  great  Edwards  to  admit  of  Bush- 
nell's  passing  by  this  leading  factor  without  dis- 
cussing the  place  of  motives  in  determining  hu- 
man action,  and  their  relation  to  the  will.  It  was 
partly  concession  to  prevailing  thought,  —  the  ne- 
cessary incident  to  a  still  dominant  theology  and 
also  to  the  nature  of  the  subject,  —  and  partly  it 
was  inevitable  in  himself ;  he  had  lived  too  long 
in  the  climate  of  "  the  will "  to  escape  its  fasci- 
nating entanglements,  but  after  all  his  discussion 
of  it  he  drops  "motives,"  and  finds  freedom  in 
"the  indisputable  report  of  consciousness."  The 
discussion  of  the  will  in  New  England  —  and 
for  more  than  a  century  it  was  the  chief  subject 
of  theological  debate  —  was  a  two-edged  sword. 
In  the  hands  of  Edwards  it  aimed  to  defend 
divine  foreknowledge  and  decrees  as  necessary  to 
a  divine  government  of  the  world  ;  but  while  it 
seemed  thus  to  uphold  Calvinism  as  against  Ar- 
minianism,  it  involved  a  practical  necessity  which 
bred  an  infidelity  that  outweighed  the  faith  that 
was  preserved,  —  a  fatal  process,  interrupted  only 
by  an  unconquerable  sense  of  freedom.  A  hundred 
and  fifty  years  of  discussion  failed  to  do  what 
consciousness,  left  to  itself,  does  in  a  moment. 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  215 

It  has  been  reserved  for  the  great  poet  of  the 
century  to  put  the  problem,  which  is  simply  a 
part  of  the  insoluble  problem  of  the  relation  of 
the  finite  to  the  Infinite,  into  words  which  express 
at  once  its  substantial  reality,  its  mystery,  and  its 
sacred  uses :  — 

"  Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how  ; 
Our  wills  are  ours,  to  make  them  thine." 

The  treatise  would  have  lost  nothing  if  Bushnell 
had  contented  himself  with  this  simple  assumption. 
His  discussion  is  not  beyond  criticism  ;  taking  the 
sword,  he  is  sometimes  slain  by  it,  as  when,  far- 
ther on,  he  asserts  a  bondage  of  the  will  under 
sin.  But  in  spite  of  slips  of  this  kind,  his  line 
of  thought  not  only  opens  in  the  direction  of  free- 
dom, but  touches  the  borders  of  present-day  psy- 
chology, which  looks  less  to  motives  and  more  at 
the  will  itself.  He  thus  escapes  the  endless  chain 
of  causation  which  entangled  the  older  discussions 
and  confounded  their  quest  for  freedom. 

Having  established  his  thesis  of  a  supernatural 
and  a  natural  system,  —  the  latter  subordinated  to 
the  former  and  together  constituting  the  one  sys- 
tem of  God  in  which  man  occnpies  a  place  in  the 
supernatural  by  virtue  of  his  will  or  personality, 
—  he  goes  on  to  show  the  inability  of  nature  by 
itself  to  inspire  and  satisfy  men,  —  lacking  the 
other  factor  to  dominate  and  direct  it.  This  point 
is  skillfully  elaborated  by  citations  from  organic 
and  inorganic  life,  showing  how  in  nature  itself 
there  are  "two  grand  systems  of  chemical  force 


21G  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

and  action  ;  one  of  which  comes  down  upon  the 
other,  always  from  without  to  dominate  over  it, 
.  .  .  producing  substances  which  the  other  coidd 
not." 

He  rims  marvelously  close  to  the  evolutionary 
theory  of  creation,  but  rejects  it  on  grounds  which 
no  longer  have  force.  A  full  doctrine  of  the 
divine  immanence  would  have  rendered  needless 
many  brilliant  pages.  In  them,  however,  we  find 
the  distinction  between  "  things  "  and  "  powers  " 
which  is  fundamental  to  his  main  contention, — 
"Nature  is  only  stage,  field,  medium,  vehicle,  for 
the  universe;  that  is,  for  God  and  his  powers." 
The  apparent  dualism  can  easily  be  passed  by ; 
the  truth  after  which  he  is  feeling  is  clear  and 
indisputable.  However  it  may  be  with  his  sci- 
ence, —  and  it  was  often  astray,  being  of  its  age, 
—  it  was  correct  enough  to  uphold  him  in  his 
effort  to  broaden  the  field  of  the  supernatural. 
Wherever  there  are  "  things  "  there  are  "  powers," 
and  these  are  supernatural.  "  Powers  "  dominate 
"  things  "  and  use  them  for  their  own  end.  Even 
if  the  "  powers  "  sin,  it  is  but  a  sign  of  that  free 
agency  which  constitutes  the  supernatural.  The 
sin  is  the  incident  in  a  system  that  has  for  its  end 
the  development  of  "  powers "  as  of  more  value 
than  "  things."  "  God  preferred  to  have  powers 
and  not  things  only"  (p.  96).     Thus  he  escapes 

the  charge  of  offsetting1  nature  and  miracle.     Nat- 
es o 

ural  and  supernatural  constitute  a  universal  order 
and  an  every-day  process.     It  is  by  such  a  path, 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  217 

beginning  in  the  lowest  forms  of  nature,  that  he 
finds  his  way  up  to  holiness  as  God's  last  end ; 
and  when  that  is  gained,  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is 
the  culmination  of  a  process  that  embraces  all  the 
stages  of  creation.  The  redeeming  work  of  Christ 
will  not  appear  as  an  intrusion  into  a  continuous 
order,  but  only  as  another  and  a  supreme  instance 
of  the  supernatural  entering  into  the  natural. 
"  The  cross  of  redemption  is  no  after-thought,  but 
is  itself  the  grand  all-dominating  idea  around 
which  the  eternal  system  of  God  crystallizes " 
(p.  139). 

In  successive  chapters  Bushnell  discusses  the 
problem  of  existence  as  related  to  evil;  the  fact 
of  sin  ;  the  consequences  of  sin ;  the  anticipative 
consequences  of  sin ;  and  development  or  self-re- 
formation not  a  remedy  for  sin.  In  the  first  three 
of  these  chapters  he  is  in  substantial  agreement 
with  the  later  school  of  New  England  theology 
so  far  as  the  freedom  of  the  will,  which  he  defines 
to  be  simply  a  volitional  function,  is  concerned  ; 
but  he  diverges  from,  though  he  does  not  contra- 
dict it,  in  regarding  the  beginning  of  sin  as  due 
to  "  conditions  privative  that  are  involved  as 
necessary  incidents  in  the  begun  existence  and 
trial  of  powers."  He  connects  it,  however,  with 
a  doctrine  of  angels,  good  and  bad,  that  later  ex- 
egesis woidd  set  aside  ;  but  it  does  not  weaken 
his  assertion  that  character  lies  in  the  will,  a 
necessary  assertion  if  he  would  get  sin  into  the 
category  of  the  supernatural  under  cover  of  the 


218  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

will.  "  To  violate  the  law  of  God  is  itself  an 
act  supernatural  "  (p.  143).  Hence  "  nothing  but 
a  supernatural  agency  of  redemption  can  ever 
effectively  repair  it."  He  thus  paves  the  way  to  a 
supernatural  Christ  and  a  redemption  that  is  more 
than  self-reformation ;  it  is  sin  that  requires  a 
supernatural  remedy. 

As  an  illustration  of  his  sense  of  the  reality  of 
sin,  we  quote  this  striking  passage,  which  will  be 
recognized,  not  as  a  logical  inference,  but  as  an 
appeal  to  consciousness  :  — 

"  Every  person  of  a  mature  age,  and  in  his 
right  mind,  remembers  turns  or  crises  in  his  life, 
where  he  met  the  question  of  wrong  face  to  face, 
and  by  a  hard  inward  struggle  broke  through  the 
sacred  convictions  of  duty  that  rose  up  to  fence 
him  back.  It  was  some  new  sin  to  which  he  had 
not  become  familiar,  so  much  worse  perhaps  in 
degree  as  to  be  the  entrance  to  him  consciously  of 
a  new  stage  of  guilt.  He  remembers  how  it  shook 
his  soul  and  even  his  body ;  how  he  shrunk  in 
guilty  anticipation  from  the  new  step  of  wrong ; 
the  sublime  misgiving  that  seized  him,  the  awk- 
ward and  but  half-possessed  manner  in  which  it 
was  taken,  and  then  afterward,  perhaps  even  after 
years  have  passed  away,  how,  in  some  quiet  hour 
of  the  day  or  wakeful  hour  of  night,  as  the  recol- 
lection of  that  deed  —  not  a  public  crime,  but  a 
wrong,  or  an  act  of  vice  —  returned  upon  him, 
the  blood  rushed  back  for  the  moment  on  his 
fluttering  heart,  the  pores  of  his  skin  opened,  and 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  219 

a  kind  of  agony  of  shame  and  self-condemnation, 
in  one  word,  of  remorse,  seized  his  whole  person. 
This  is  the  consciousness,  the  guilty  pang,  of  sin; 
every  man  knows  what  it  is. 

"  We  have  also  observed  this  peculiarity  in 
such  experiences ;  that  it  makes  no  difference  at 
all  what  temptations  we  were  under ;  we  probably 
enough  do  not  even  think  of  them ;  our  soul  ap- 
pears to  scorn  apology,  as  if  some  higher  nature 
within,  speaking  out  of  its  eternity,  were  asserting 
its  violated  rights,  chastising  the  insult  done  to 
its  inborn  affinities  with  immutable  order  and 
divinity,  and  refusing  to  be  further  humbled  by 
the  low  pleadings  of  excuse  and  disingenuous  guilt. 
To  say,  at  such  a  time,  the  woman  tempted  me,  I 
was  weak,  I  was  beguiled,  I  was  compelled  by  fear 
and  overcome,  signifies  nothing.  The  wrong  was 
understood,  and  that  suffices"  (p.  151). 

It  is  such  pictures  from  life  and  appeals  to 
experience  that  make  one  regret  that  Bushnell 
ever  troubled  himself  to  speculate  on  the  nature 
of  the  will  or  of  sin.  It  is  like  measuring'  the 
speed  of  the  wind  and  the  volts  of  the  lightning 
to  prove  the  reality  of  the  tempest. 

In  chapter  sixth,  which  treats  of  the  "Conse- 
quences of  Sin,"  amid  much  overstatement  and 
without  due  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  penal 
is  often  redemptive,  there  occurs  another  passage 
of  keenest  insight  upon  the  effect  of  sin  in  the 
soul.  It  is  such  passages  as  these,  drawn  straight 
from  life,  that  carry  his  argument  on  and  over  his 


220  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

not  always  consistent  statements  ;  insight  triumphs 
over  definition :  — 

"  Given  the  fact  of  sin,  the  fact  of  a  fatal  breach 
in  the  normal  state,  or  constitutional  order  of  the 
soul,  follows  of  necessity.  And  exactly  this  we 
shall  see,  if  we  look  in  upon  its  secret  chambers 
and  watch  the  motions  of  sins  in  the  confused 
ferment  they  raise,  —  the  perceptions  discolored, 
the  judgments  unable  to  hold  their  scales  steadily 
because  of  the  fierce  gusts  of  passion,  the  thoughts 
huddling  by  in  crowds  of  wild  suggestion,  the 
imagination  haunted  by  ugly  and  disgustful  shapes, 
the  appetites  contesting  with  reason,  the  senses 
victorious  over  faith,  anger  blowing  the  overheated 
fires  of  malice,  low  jealousies  sulking  in  dark 
angles  of  the  soul,  and  envies  baser  still,  hiding 
under  the  skim  of  its  green-mantled  pools,  —  all 
the  powers  that  should  be  strung  in  harmony 
loosened  from  each  other,  and  brewing  in  hopeless 
and  helpless  confusion ;  the  conscience  meantime 
thundering  wrathfully  above  and  shooting  down 
hot  bolts  of  judgment,  and  the  pallid  fears  hurry- 
ing wildly  about  with  their  brimstone  torches, — 
these  are  the  motions  of  sins,  the  Tartarean  land- 
scape of  the  soul  and  its  disorders,  when  self- 
government  is  gone  and  the  constituent  integrity 
is  dissolved.  We  cannot  call  it  the  natural  state 
of  man  ;  nature  disowns  it.  No  one  that  looks  in 
upon  the  ferment  of  its  morbid,  contesting,  rasp- 
ing, restive,  uncontrollable  action  can  imagine,  for 
a  moment,  that  he  looks  upon  the  sweet,  primal 


« NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  221 

order  of  life  and  nature.  No  name  sufficiently 
describes  it,  unless  we  coin  a  name  and  call  it  a 
condition  of  unnature  "  (p.  173). 

The  close  of  this  chapter  on  the  "  Consequences 
of  Sin  in  the  Natural  World,"  and  the  next  chap- 
ter, on  the  "  Anticipative  Consequences,"  might 
well  be  omitted,  were  they  not  revelations  not  only 
of  limitations,  but  also  of  how  nobly  he  can  err. 
There  is  no  anticipation  of  sin  in  palaeontology 
nor  elsewhere  before  man.  That  there  is  "pre- 
meditation prior  to  creation,"  and  that  man  is  the 
end  in  view  and  the  outcome  of  creation  from  its 
beginning,  is,  next  to  the  Copernican  system,  the 
most  valuable  contribution  to  human  knowledge 
ever  made  by  science,  but  it  anticipates  order  and 
not  disorder.  Sin  can  be  put  into  divine  fore- 
knowledge, but  not  even  by  symbol  into  creation. 
Bushnell's  mistake  sprang  out  of  a  habit  of  mak- 
ing everything  contributory  to  his  point.  He  was 
always  a  jealous  lover  of  his  subject.  Wherever 
he  looked,  he  saw  the  truth  he  was  contending  for, 
and  he  impressed  into  its  service  whatever  his 
facile  imagination  could  bring  within  range.  Sin 
stands  before  him  a  great  reality,  and  he  will  show 
it  to  be  great  in  order  to  suit  the  proportions  of  the 
redemption  he  has  in  mind.  Hence  he  finds  signs 
of  it  wrought  into  the  very  texture  of  the  globe, 
and  traces  it  out  with  wild  and  splendid  rhetoric ; 
but  every  instance  cited  is  instead  a  prophecy  of 
perfection.1     It  was  not  wholly  due  to  mistaken 

1  The  whole  subject  is  admirably  treated  by  Professor  James 


222  HORACE   BUSIINELL 

thinking,  nor  to  the  lingering  influence  of  a  passing 
theology,  but  also  to  the  fact  that  science  had  not 
yet  emphasized  the  evolutionary  theory  of  crea- 
tion. Still,  it  is  difficult  to  find  sufficient  excuse 
for  thought  so  contrary  to  its  usual  tenor. 

The  chapter  on  "  No  Remedy  in  Development, 
or  Self-reformation "  is  written  with  great  care, 
and  in  its  latter  pages  with  a  profound  sense  of 
the  need  of  God  in  order  to  remedy  the  evil  of 
sin  and  to  regenerate  character.  It  abounds,  how- 
ever, in  ethnological  and  physiological  illustrations 
that  no  longer  bear  the  interpretation  put  on  them. 
That  which  is  called  supernatural,  or  a  type  of 
it,  for  instance,  the  healing  of  a  woimd  (p.  230), 
is  quite  as  natural  as  any  part  of  growth.  It  is 
recovery  and  may  serve  as  an  analogy  to  a  moral 
process,  but  it  is  wholly  natural.  Bushnell  here 
incurs  the  danger  of  dealing  too  confidently  with 
natural  science.  He  drew  his  dividing  lines  over- 
sharply.  Clement,  whom  he  quotes,  says,  "  I  saw 
nothing  but  the  piling  up  and  tearing  down  of 
theories."     The  interpretations  of  one  day  yielded 

D.  Dana  in  the  New  Englander,  vol.  xvii.  p.  293,  an  exhaustive 
article,  in  which  he  shows  that  the  real  anticipation  of  man  in 
nature  is  man's  need,  not  his  sin  and  retribution.  Bushnell  used 
nature  to  fortify  a  doctrine  of  sin  and  so  made  it  almost  sinful. 
Dana  saw  nature  as  a  related  whole  ;  and  each  thing  as  it  bore 
on  the  general  purpose.  It  is,  however,  just  to  Bushnell  to  say 
that  he  anticipated  if  he  did  not  answer  this  inevitable  criticism 
in  chapter  iv.  page  98  :  "  God's  unities  are  all,  in  the  last  degree, 
unities  of  end,  or  causal  as  related  to  end ;  consisting  never  in 
a  perfect  concert  of  parts  or  elements,  but  in  a  comprehensive 
order  that  takes  up  and  tempera  to  its  own  purposes  many  an- 
tagonisms." 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  223 

to  those  of  the  next ;  the  supernatural  became  nat- 
ural, and  both  tend  more  and  more  to  a  spiritual 
interpretation,  which  may  perhaps  have  the  unity 
of  the  spirit.  But  these  slijas  in  science  do  not 
weaken  the  force  of  his  claim  that  self-reformation 
is  not  effected  as  Alcibiades  said,  "  by  the  will," 
but  as  Plato  said,  "  by  God's  will  "  (p.  243). 

Having  shown  that  "  there  is  no  hope  for  man 
or  human  society,  under  sin,  save  in  the  supernat- 
ural interposition  of  God"  (p.  250),  Bushnell  asks 
if  there  is  any  rational  objection  to  such  interposi- 
tion. This  always  has  been  and  is  the  hard  question 
in  connection  with  miracles,  Are  they  reasonable  ? 
When  the  reason  raises  the  question,  it  will  not 
be  satisfied  with  a  negative  answer ;  they  will  be 
denied,  or  they  will  be  accepted  on  some  ground  of 
historic  evidence  that  silences  but  does  not  satisfy 
reason.  Bushnell  delivered  thought  out  of  this 
slough  by  including  miracles  under  law,  and  nam- 
ing the  law  supernatural,  assuming  that  law  is  rea- 
son itself.  This  point  is  worked  out  with  great 
ability,  especially  in  that  part  of  the  chapter  in 
winch  he  contends  that  law  in  nature  implies  law 
in  the  supernatural,  particularly  as  seen  in  the  na- 
ture of  God,  quoting  with  effect  Hooker's  saying 
that  "  the  being  of  God  is  a  kind  of  law  to  his 
working."  Whatever  becomes  of  nature  and  su- 
pernatural  when  brought  under  so  unifying  a  force 
as  law,  the  objection  to  miracles  as  unreasonable 
disappears.1 
1  A  .remark  of  Rothe  on  this  point  is  of  interest.     "  Here  I 


224  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

It  is  with  this  triumphant  note  that  he  enters 
upon  the  famous  tenth  chapter,  where  he  contends 
that  the  character  of  Jesus  forbids  his  possible 
classification  with  men.  This  chapter  almost  su- 
persedes the  rest  of  the  volume,  even  as  it  sur- 
passes all  in  sustained  interest  and  adequacy  of 
treatment.  It  has  the  finish  of  a  classic,  and  by 
frequent  republication  has  already  become  one. 
Despite  Bushnell's  uncertain  handling  of  the  hu- 
manity of  Christ  in  theological  analysis,  upon  no 
other  theme  does  he  write  with  so  profound  sym- 
pathy. Having  established  his  general  thesis  that 
the  disorders  of  sin  require  a  supernatural  divine 
ministration  to  overcome  them,  he  approaches 
Christianity  as  "  a  kind  of  miracle,  a  power  out  of 
nature  and  above,  descending  into  it."  Christ  is 
"  the  central  figure  and  power,  and  with  him  the 
entire  fabric  stands  or  falls  "  (p.  276). 

must  face  the  question,  how  I  dispose  of  the  grave  difficultiea 
which  seem  to  he  involved  in  the  very  nature  of  a  miracle.  In 
respect  to  this  question  I  find  myself  somewhat  embarrassed,  not, 
however,  by  the  solution  of  the  difficulties,  but  because  I  do  not 
see  that  any  difficulties  exist.  I  will  in  all  simplicity  out  with 
my  honest  confession,  that  to  this  hour  I  have  never  been  able  to 
make  it  clear  to  myself  how  my  rational  nature  could  possibly 
take  offense  at  the  conception  of  a  miracle.  It  may  arise  from 
this,  that  I  am  so  thoroughly  a  theist  in  my  nature  that  I  could 
never  find  in  myself  the  least  trace  of  deistic  or  pantheistic  feel- 
ings. In  part  it  may  arise  from  the  fact  that  as  a  matter  of  prin- 
ciple I  have  ever  held  these  two  questions  distinctly  apart,  —  the 
simply  abstract  inquiry,  whether  a  miracle  in  itself  is  rationally 
conceivable,  and  the  concrete,  whether,  in  a  given  case,  a  reported 
miracle,  even  if  it  be  in  the  Bible,  is  to  be  received  as  having 
occurred  in  fact."  (Studien  und  Kriti/cen,  1S58,  pp.  24,  25. 
Quoted  from  the  New  Englander,  vol.  xvii.  p.  251.) 


« NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  225 

A  few  quotations  will  indicate  the  drift  and 
spirit  of  the  chapter. 

"  Christ  is  no  liberal,  never  takes  the  ground  or 
boasts  the  distinction  of  a  liberal  among  his  coun- 
trymen, because  it  is  not  a  part  of  his  infirmity,  in 
discovering  an  error  here,  to  fly  to  an  excess  there. 
His  ground  is  charity,  not  liberality  ;  and  the  two 
are  as  wide  apart  in  their  practical  implications, 
as  adhering  to  all  truth  and  being  loose  in  all. 
Charity  holds  fast  the  minutest  atoms  of  truth, 
as  being  precious  and  divine,  offended  by  even  so 
much  as  a  thought  of  laxity.  Liberality  loosens 
the  terms  of  truth ;  permitting  easily  and  with 
careless  magnanimity  variations  from  it ;  consent- 
ing, as  it  were,  in  its  own  sovereignty,  to  overlook 
or  allow  them ;  and  subsiding  thus,  ere  long,  into 
a  licentious  indifference  to  all  truth,  and  a  general 
defect  of  responsibility  in  regard  to  it.  Charity 
extends  allowance  to  men ;  liberality,  to  falsities 
themselves.  Charity  takes  the  truth  to  be  sacred 
and  immovable ;  liberality  allows  it  to  be  marred 
and  maimed  at  pleasure.  How  different  the  man- 
ner of  Jesus  in  this  respect  from  that  unreverent, 
feeble  laxity,  that  lets  the  errors  be  as  good  as  the 
truths,  and  takes  it  for  a  sign  of  intellectual  emi- 
nence, that  one  can  be  floated  comfortably  in  the 
abysses  of  liberalism.  '  Judge  not,'  he  says,  in 
holy  charity,  '  that  ye  be  not  judged  ; '  and  again, 
in  holy  exactness,  '  whosoever  shall  break,  or  teach 
to  break,  one  of  these  least  commandments,  shall 
be  least  in  the  kingdom  of  God.'      So  magnificent 


226  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

and  sublime,  so  plainly  divine,  is  the  balance  o£ 
Jesus.  Nothing  throws  him  off  the  centre  on 
which  truth  rests  ;  no  prejudice,  no  opposition,  no 
attempt  to  right  a  mistake,  or  rectify  a  delusion, 
or  reform  a  practice  "  (p.  312). 

"  But  before  we  drop  a  theme  like  this,  let  us 
note  more  distinctly  the  significance  of  this  glori- 
ous advent,  and  have  our  congratulations  in  it. 
This  one  perfect  character  has  come  into  our  world, 
and  lived  in  it ;  filling  all  the  moidds  of  action,  all 
the  terms  of  duty  and  love,  with  his  own  divine 
manners,  works,  and  charities.  All  the  conditions 
of  our  life  are  raised  thus,  by  the  meaning  he  has 
shown  to  be  in  them,  and  the  grace  he  has  put 
upon  them.  The  world  itself  is  changed,  and  is 
no  more  the  same  that  it  was  ;  it  has  never  been 
the  same  since  Jesus  left  it.  The  air  is  charged 
with  heavenly  odors,  and  a  kind  of  celestial  con- 
sciousness, a  sense  of  other  worlds,  is  wafted  on  us 
in  its  breath.  ...  It  were  easier  to  untwist  all 
the  beams  of  light  in  the  sky,  separating  and  ex- 
punging one  of  the  colors,  than  to  get  the  charac- 
ter of  Jesus,  which  is  the  real  gospel,  out  of  the 
world.  Look  ye  hither,  meantime,  all  ye  blinded 
and  fallen  of  mankind,  a  better  nature  is  among 
you,  a  pure  heart,  out  of  some  pure  world,  is  come 
into  your  prison,  and  walks  it  with  you  ....  In  him 
dawns  a  hope, — purity  has  not  come  into  our  world, 
except  to  purify.  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  that 
taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world !  Light  breaks 
in,  peace  settles  on  the  air,  lo !  the  prison  walls  are 
giving  way,  —  rise,  let  us  go  "  (p.  330). 


V 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  227 

It  will  be  noticed  that  Bushnell  does  not  con- 
tend for  the  non-classification  of  Jesus  with  men 
on  ontological  grounds.  Once  only,  and  then  but 
slightly,  does  he  refer  to  the  miraculous  birth.  It 
is  the  perfection  of  his  character  that  puts  him  be- 
yond classification  with  men  and  into  the  super- 
natural. But  having  already  put  men  in  this  cat- 
egory, he  so  far  includes  men  and  Jesus  in  the  same 
classification,  and  separates  him  from  men  only  by 
the  moral  perfection  of  his  humanity.  It  would 
be  untrue,  however,  to  infer  that  Bushnell's  thought 
of  the  person  of  Christ  did  not  go  further  than 
this.1  But  in  this  chapter  there  is  an  irenic  tone 
that  reveals  where  Ms  thought  rested  as  he  strove 
to  show  that  the  perfectly  human  separates  Jesus 
from  men.  His  sympathetic  reader  to-day  over- 
looks the  aim,  and  rejoices  in  the  pages  as  showing 
that  the  perfectly  human  is  divine. 

In  the  chapter  (p.  333)  in  which  the  miracles 
of  Christ  are  discussed,  the  usual  line  of  argument 
is  pursued,  often  with  great  keenness,  but  with  the 
common  result  of  unsatisfactoriness  due  to  the  in- 

1  "  A  German  theologian  finds  the  unparalleled  power  of  Jesus 
in  the  unlimited  range  of  his  sympathies.  He  stands  apart  from 
and  above  all  men  in  greatness.  He  is  absolutely  unique.  He 
is,  as  Bushnell  said,  unelassifiable.  But  is  not  his  uniqueness 
this,  that  he  is  not  provincial,  local,  and  narrow,  but  universal ; 
that  he  knew  what  is  in  man  as  no  other  has  known,  and  that  he 
had  power  and  sympathetic  union  with  men  and  women  of  any 
nation  and  any  religion  ?  He  whose  uniqueness  made  him  the 
Son  of  God  was  he  whose  universality  made  him  the  Son  of  man. 
Dr.  Dorner  therefore  lays  down  the  principle  that  the  uniqueness 
of  Jesus  is  his  universality."  (President  George  Harris,  D.  D., 
Inequality  and  Progress,  p.  147.) 


228  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

herent  difficulty  of  the  subject.  The  time  for  a 
proper  discussion  of  the  historicity  of  miracles  had 
not  fully  come. 

The  claim  that  God  acts  only  "  immediately 
on  the  whole  "  is  well  met :  "  The  argument  by 
which  all  particular  action  is  excluded,  would  re- 
quire that  God  should  never  have  begun  to  act 
immediately  anywhere.  Creation  is  thus  philoso- 
phically impossible.  God,  therefore,  has  had  no- 
thing to  do,  but  to  be  chained  to  the  wheel  from 
eternity,  acting  immediately  on  some  eternal  whole 
that  is  self-existent  as  He ;  allowed  to  begin  no- 
thing, vary  no  part  or  particle,  held  by  a  doom  to 
his  eternal  totality.  Is  it  this  which  '  the  idea  of 
God '  requires,  this  by  which  our  idea  of  God  is 
fulfilled  ?  "  (p.  343). 

In  conclusion,  the  question  is  referred  to  the  gen- 
eral problem  of  Jesus  ;  the  miracles  do  not  prove 
him,  he  proves  the  miracles  :  — 

"  The  character  and  doctrine  of  Jesus  are  the 
sun  that  holds  all  the  minor  orbs  of  revelation  to 
their  places,  and  pours  a  sovereign  self-evidencing 
light  into  all  religious  knowledge.  ...  It  is  no 
ingenious  fetches  of  argument  that  we  want  ;  no 
external  testimony,  gathered  here  and  there  from 
the  records  of  past  ages,  suffices  to  end  our 
doubts  ;  but  it  is  the  new  sense  opened  in  us  by 
Jesus  himself  —  a  sense  deeper  than  words  and 
more  immediate  than  inference  —  of  the  miracu- 
lous grandeur  of  his  life ;  a  glorious  agreement 
felt  between  his  works  and  his  person,  such  that 


•'NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"    229 

his  miracles  themselves  are  proved  to  us  in  our 
feeling,  believed  in  by  that  inward  testimony.  On 
this  inward  testimony  we  are  willing  to  stake  every- 
thing, even  the  life  that  now  is,  and  that  which 
is  to  come.  If  the  miracles,  if  revelation  itself, 
cannot  stand  upon  the  superhuman  character  of 
Jesus,  then  let  it  fall.  If  that  character  does  not 
contain  all  truth  and  centralize  all  truth  in  itself, 
then  let  there  be  no  truth." 

The  chapter  on  "  Miracles  and  Spiritual  Gifts 
not  Discontinued  "  is  usually  regarded  as  a  detrac- 
tion from  the  book,  especially  in  view  of  the  ex- 
amples cited.  Bushnell  himself  said  of  it  that  it 
cost  him  more  of  a  sacrifice  to  insert  it  than  any- 
thing he  ever  did.  While  it  was  not  necessary 
to  his  main  contention,  it  was  almost  unavoidable. 
As  the  corrective  of  naturalism,  which  is  a  recur- 
ring if  not  an  abiding  feature  of  human  thought, 
the  supernatural  seems  to  be  also  called  for  as  a 
constant  attendant.  Besides,  the  supernatural  was 
so  far  extended  over  the  domain  of  what  was  usu- 
ally regarded  as  nature,  and  as  they  together  con- 
stituted the  one  system  of  God,  it  seemed  absurd 
to  shut  out  the  play  of  the  greater  factor  and  give 
it  over  to  the  doubtful  keeping  of  historic  remem- 
brance. Such  considerations  evidently  weighed 
with  him,  but  his  pen  labored  under  the  difficul- 
ties involved ;  miracles,  even  under  law,  are  beset 
with  so  much  hazard,  and  run  to  such  excesses, 
that  he  is  driven  to  the  supposition  that  they  are 
periodic,  —  appearing  when  they  are  necessary  to 


230  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

correct  the  rationalism  begotten  by  unvarying 
law. 

Almost  the  last  writing  done  by  Bushnell  was 
a  few  pages  of  a  proposed  treatise  on  the  Holy 
Spirit,  —  too  brief  to  indicate  what  his  treatment 
would  have  been  ;  but  we  cannot  avoid  the  surmise 
that  if  he  had  lived  to  complete  it,  he  would  have 
found  in  the  ever  active  Spirit  of  God  a  power 
that  superseded  the  need  of  intermittent  miracles 
to  quicken  faith.  The  trouble  with  his  thought 
here  is  that  he  failed  to  keep  it  within  limits; 
his  ardor  carried  him  over  the  borders,  whence 
he  could  return  only  by  weakening  explanations. 
But  how  much  better  is  this  than  dull,  unimagin- 
ative shortcoming  !  And  how  much  better  also  is 
over-faith  than  under-faith  ! 

Of  the  book  as  a  whole  it  should  be  said  that 
it  is  not  a  study  of  the  Christian  miracles.  It  is 
not  the  miraculous  but  the  supernatural  that  en- 
gages Bushnell' s  attention.  He  assumed  but  did 
not  treat  crucial  points  such  as  the  supernatural 
birth  of  Jesus  and  the  ascension.  He  did  not 
enter  upon  questions  of  historicity,  —  it  was  too 
early,  but  he  did  something  more  important :  he 
contended  that  nature  and  the  supernatural  con- 
stitute one  system,  and  that  "  powers  "  are  greater 
than  "  things."  This  is  fundamental  and  inclu- 
sive ;  all  else  is  —  not  unimportant,  but  relatively 
so.  Did  Christ  rise  from  the  dead?  If  so,  it 
was  according  to  law.  This  is  fundamental  and 
eternal.     The  historic  treatment  of  the  details  of 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  231 

miracles  is  a  matter  that  belongs  to  a  region  not 
yet  fully  entered ;  but  whatever  the  outcome  of 
criticism,  the  service  rendered  by  Bushnell  was 
and  is  still  of  greatest  value.  A  recognition  of 
the  reign  of  law  and  the  continuity  of  force  was 
rapidly  entering  into  the  thought  of  the  day.  The 
claim  that  God  suspended  the  law  in  order  to 
reveal  his  special  presence  or  power  was  losing  its 
force ; 1  the  "  great  bell "  no  longer  rang  clear. 
The  crass  dualism  involved  in  the  conception  of 
law  and  miracle  began  to  plague  thought  with  sus- 
picion and  uncertainty.  If  miracle  stood  for  God, 
and  nature  for  itself,  each  factor  was  too  great  for 
the  other ;  the  dualism  must  be  resolved,  and  unity 
of  some  sort  established.  In  the  light  of  mod- 
ern criticism  and  exegesis,  it  is  easy  to  see  which 
way  the  current  was  flowing.  If  the  traditional 
definition  were  insisted  on,  miracles  would  go  by 
the  board ;  no  doctrine  on  the  subject  could  be 
retained,  and  naturalism  would  hold  the  field. 
Whatever  the  future  of  the  question  may  be, 
Bushnell  made  it  possible  for  reason  and  faith  to 
keep  together,  at  least  for  a  time.  But  he  did 
more  ;  he  hewed  a  path  —  rough  but  not  blind  — 
into  that  realm  of  the  Spirit  to  which  the  age  is 
slowly  opening  its  eyes.  He  interpreted  the  world 
spiritually.  Laws  are  not  ends,  but  means  for  get- 
ting into  the  free  world  of  the  Spirit,  which  dom- 

1  The  word  suspended  is  used  because  it  defines  the  popular 
conception  of  a  miracle  then  held.  The  more  careful  definitions 
of  Canon  Mozley  (Bampton  Lectures)  and  Professor  Fisher 
[Grounds  of  Theistic  Belief)  had  not  yet  been  made. 


232  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

inates  all  things  because  it  has  created  all.  He 
enforces  the  distinction  between  "  things "  and 
"  powers,"  and  names  the  latter  "  supernatural." 
It  is  in  this  light  that  his  book  has  permanent 
value.  It  is  to  be  regarded,  not  as  an  argument 
for  miracles,  but  for  the  suiDernatural. 

Its  reception  was  what  might  have  been,  ex- 
pected. It  was  extensively  reviewed  both  at 
home  and  in  Great  Britain,  where,  if  it  did  not 
escape  criticism,  it  received  kinder  treatment  than 
here. 

A  letter  to  Dr.  Bartol  indicates  in  a  word  the 
situation  in  which  the  critics  put  him :  — 

"  I  will  try  to  comfort  myself  in  the  hope  that 
I  am  about  right  wlien  you,  on  one  hand,  set  me 
down  as  the  demolisher  of  nature,  and  the  'New 
Englander '  complains,  on  the  other,  that  I  defer 
too  much  to  nature,  and  am  too  much  under  her 
power."  And  again  :  "  It  is  really  hard  times 
with  a  poor  fellow.  The  '  New  Englander  '  tries 
me  all  through  by  the  New  Haven  theology,  and 
Dr.  James  makes  me  a  ninny  for  being  in  the 
New  Haven  theology.  About  everything  said  on 
one  side  is  thrown  back  on  the  other,  and  I  am 
pelted  all  round." 

But  little  of  this  criticism  was  based  on  its 
merit  or  demerit,  —  so  determining  was  theologi- 
cal prejudice.  That  he  was  regarded  in  Boston 
as  a  "  demolisher  of  nature  "  and  in  New  Haven 
as  deferring  "  too  much  to  nature  "  is  a  reflection 
of  the  fixedness  of  the  thought  in  each  region.     It 


"NATURE  AND  THE  SUPERNATURAL"  233 

was  evident  that  a  fresh  thinker  had  broken  into 
the  world  of  New  England  theology.  But  while 
the  shepherds  were  contending  over  the  book,  — 
one  side  denying  that  it  was  food  for  faith,  the 
other  that  it  was  true,  —  the  flock  found  their 
way  to  it,  and  were  fed  and  comforted.  Like 
"  Christian  Nurture,"  it  was  another  deliverance, 
and  another  lesson  in  the  Christian  faith. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE" 


"  The  Latin  or  Western  or  scholastic  type  of  theology  ...  is 
wholly  different.  Its  dominant  thought  is  the  divine  transcend- 
ence —  the  thought  of  God  as  the  Sovereign,  Ruler,  and  Judge, 
remote  from  the  earth  in  some  sphere  of  light  unapproachahle  ; 
and  of  nature  and  man  az  something  alien  to  God,  or  alienated 
from  Him,  the  mere  subject  of  His  laws.  Latin  theology  is  the 
description  of  a  scheme  for  bridging  over  this  vast  interval.  It 
is  '  saturated  with  Roman  Law. '  This  conception,  essentially 
dualistic,  tends  to  dualism  and  division  everywhere.  It  sharply 
distinguishes  the  natural  from  the  supernatural,  the  material  from 
the  spiritual,  the  sacred  from  the  profane,  the  human  from  the 
divine.  It  leads  on  to  distinctions  of  converted  from  unconverted, 
laity  from  clergy,  inspired  from  uninspired,  Church  from  world. 
It  creates  a  passion  for  distinctions.  It  separates  the  Father  from 
the  Son  ;  God's  justice  from  His  mercy  ;  the  gift  from  the  gifts 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  defines  everything  ;  and  definition  almost 
necessitates  the  materialization  of  our  thoughts ;  it  defines  the 
stages  of  salvation,  the  modes  and  conditions  of  transmission  of 
the  Divine  Life  through  the  Sacraments  and  the  other  kindred 
rites  of  the  Church  ;  and  it  identifies  the  acceptance  of  such  defi- 
nitions with  Churchmanship,  and  even  with  faith.  .  .  .  This  type 
of  theology  colours  opinion  on  every  region  of  thought.  Miracle 
tends  to  be  regarded  as  an  occasional  interference  of  God  with  His 
own  laws.  Life  is  dwelt  on  rather  as  a  probation  than  as  an  edu- 
cation. The  Fall  is  interpreted  as  a  historical  or  quasi-historical 
event  in  time.  It  is  explained  as  having  involved  all  Adam's  pos- 
terity in  guilt  and  alienation  from  God,  and  necessitated  an  inter- 
vention, almost  an  after-thought  in  God's  plans  ;  a  transaction  by 
which  men,  though  sinful,  might  be  relieved  of  the  penalty  of 
their  sin.  The  whole  of  Latin  theology  follows  by  a  sort  of  logical 
necessity  ;  and  theology  has  occupied  itself  rather  with  the  logic 
of  its  deductions  than  with  the  fundamental  ideas  on  which  all 
depends.  It  is  inventive  and  it  is  insistent.  Salvation  is  a  scheme 
of  '  interposition  between  two  permanently  distant  objects.'  It  is 
a  superhuman  transaction  rather  than  a  spiritual  process.  It  may 
take  the  vulgar  but  fatally  intelligible  form  of  a  commercial  trans- 
fer of  merit  from  Christ  to  us,  and  of  penalty  from  us  to  Christ. 
Even  this  must  come,  it  may  be  taught,  through  fixed  and  defina- 
ble channels."  —  The  Rev.  J.  M.  Wilson,  Archdeacon  of  Man- 
chester, The  Gospel  of  the  Atonement  (Hulsean  Lectures,  1898-99), 
p.  144. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

"THE   VICARIOUS    SACRIFICE" 

The  Atonement,  used  as  the  general  name  for 
the  work  of  Christ,  was  never  absent  from  the 
mind  of  Bushnell,  but  the  first  hint  we  have  of 
his  purpose  to  write  upon  it  is  found  in  a  letter  to 
a  friend  in  1859:  "I  think  the  day  is  at  hand 
when  something  can  be  done  for  a  better  concep- 
tion of  the  work  of  Christ.  Here  is  the  great  field 
left  that  I  wait  for  grace  and  health  to  occupy." 
Two  years  later,  in  a  letter  to  his  wife,  he  states  his 
plan,  —  from  which,  however,  he  varied  somewhat, 
—  and  reveals  also  the  spirit  in  which  he  entered 
upon  his  work.  "Things  now  are  getting  into 
some  shape  in  this  great  field,  where,  you  know,  I 
have  been  toiling  after  shape  for  these  two  years. 
I  mean  to  realize  my  original,  heaven-given  thought 
of  a  book  on  the  Vicarious  Sacrifice  for  Christian 
experience,  and  propose  to  make  it  possible  by  a  vol- 
ume, to  precede,  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacrifice,  — 
to  precede,  however,  not  in  time,  but  in  order,  and 
to  be  published,  both,  as  separate,  and  also  as  vol- 
umes I.  and  II.  Call  the  one,  say, '  Vicarious  Sac- 
rifice in  Christ ;  '  and  the  other, '  Vicarious  Sacri- 
fice in  Believers,'  or  by  any  such  like  title.  .  .  . 


238  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

"  I  never  saw  so  distinctly  as  now  what  it  is  to 
be  a  disciple,  or  what  the  keynote  is  of  all  most 
Christly  experience.  I  think,  too,  that  I  have 
made  my  last  discovery  in  this  mine.  First,  I 
was  led  along  into  initial  experience  of  God, 
socially  and  by  force  of  the  blind  religional  instinct 
in  my  nature ;  second,  I  was  advanced  into  the 
clear  moral  light  of  Christ  and  of  God,  as  related 
to  the  principle  of  rectitude ;  next,  or  third,  I  was 
set  on  by  the  inward  personal  discovery  of  Christ, 
and  of  God  as  represented  in  him ;  now,  fourth,  I 
lay  hold  of  and  appropriate  the  general  culminating 
fact  of  God's  vicarious  character  in  goodness,  and 
of  mine  to  be  accomplished  in  Christ  as  a  follower." 

The  stages  to  which  he  refers  are,  first,  his  early 
conversion  in  youthhood  ;  second,  his  experience 
while  a  tutor,  described  in  a  sermon  on  "  The 
Dissolving  of  Doubts  ; "  third,  that  revelation  of 
the  meaning  of  the  gospel  which  led  to  his  writing 
"  God  in  Christ ;  "  fourth,  the  conceptions  of  sacri- 
fice and  forgiveness  which  were  to  ripen  into  the 
present  volume.  There  seems  to  be  an  evolution 
almost  scientific  in  the  order  and  accuracy  with 
which  one  thing  led  to  another,  but  it  was  evolu- 
tion under  an  environment  as  well  as  through  an 
inner  force.  In  one  sense  there  was  not  this  or- 
derly advance  from  one  subject  to  another :  all  were 
thrust  upon  him  at  the  very  outset.  But  he  had 
a  habit  of  "  hanging  up  a  subject ; "  "I  let  time 
chew  my  questions  for  me."  Still,  the  environment 
pressed  upon  him,  and  at  last  drove  him  to  utter- 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  239 

ance.  He  found  himself  face  to  face  with  doctrines 
which  he  could  accept  only  under  wide  qualifica- 
tions, and  a  prevailing  habit  of  thought  with  which 
he  had  little  sympathy.  If  he  is  regarded  as  a  de- 
velopment, we  can  see  that  the  time  had  come  when 
it  was  possible  for  him  to  do  his  work,  even  in  the 
very  order  in  which  it  has  been  named.  At  the 
beginning  of  his  ministry  he  would  have  found 
no  audience  and  no  toleration.  It  woidd  seem  that 
Calvinism  must  run  an  ordained  course  and  exhaust 
itself  under  its  own  self-destructive  energy.  Its 
"  improvements  "  and  modifications  did  not  point 
to  continuance,  but  to  extinction  ;  they  were  not  as 
leaf  to  bud  and  fruit  to  flower,  but  were  the  crum- 
bling away  of  foundations.1 

Theology,  like  nature  itself,  may  rest  on  the  Will 
of  God,  but  it  cannot  forever  rest  on  a  doctrine  of 
divine  sovereignty  that  vests  itself  in  decrees  of  elec- 
tion to  salvation  or  reprobation  on  the  ground  that 
each  is  necessary  to  reveal  the  glory  of  God.  It  is 
not  easy  to  account  for  its  existence  in  a  system  of 
Christian  theology.  Its  history  can  be  partially 
traced,  but  nothing  wholly  accoimts  for  it  except 
the  uncertain  play  of  the  human  mind  when  it 
undertakes  to  reduce  the  thoughts  and  purposes  of 
God  to  a  system  drawn  out  of  existing  institutions 
and  based  on  a  handbreadth  of  knowledge.     Its 

1  "  It  has  been  said  that  Calvinism  is  a  philosophy  in  its  es- 
sence ;  and  I  do  not  object  to  it  on  that  account,  but  because  it  is 
not  to  me  a  true  philosophy."  (John  McLeod  Campbell,  The  Na- 
ture of  the  Atonement,  p.  53.) 


240  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

defenders  are  as  inexplicable  as  itself.  The  history 
of  the  doctrine  in  New  England  is  an  ecclesiastical 
tragedy,  and  often  it  turned  personal  life  into  one. 
After  its  full  restatement  by  Edwards,  that  process 
of  "  improvement  "  began  by  which  it  wasted  itself 
just  in  the  degree  in  which  it  commended  itself  to 
reason ;  it  could  not  overtake  the  thought  of  the 
world,  nor  resist  the  spirit  of  humanity  that  under- 
lay Arminianism,  and  was  bedded  in  English  litera- 
ture and  institutions.  It  was  a  system  incapable 
of  real  improvement  for  the  simple  reason  that  it 
took  away  ethics  as  between  God  and  men,  and 
denied  the  divine  Fatherhood.  When  Hopkins 
modified  Edwards  by  asserting  that  God  is  essen- 
tial love  rather  than  justice,  yet  retained  the  doc- 
trine of  decrees  in  its  unmitigated  form,  the  very 
incongruity  weakened  the  system  as  a  whole.  It 
was  at  this  point  that  the  inevitable  dismemberment 
began  which  has  left  the  churches  of  the  "  Stand- 
ing Order  "  in  New  England,  that  once  held  the 
entire  ground,  one  of  many  sects,  and  so  greatly 
changed  that  it  can  hardly  recognize  itself  as  even 
the  remnant  it  has  become.  It  was  then  that  Uni- 
versalism  and  Methodism  came  in  like  a  flood,  — 
one  protesting  against  the  inhumanity  of  Calvin- 
ism, the  other  against  its  necessarianism.  It  was 
then  that  the  Unitarian  movement  began  to  take 
form  as  a  general  protest ;  but  being  chiefly  such, 
it  failed  to  realize  the  organic  life  which  the  Stand- 
ing Order  has  preserved,  having  other  springs  of 
life  than  its  doctrinal  system. 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  241 

It  was  in  connection  with  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  that  the  "  improvements  "  in  theology 
were  of  greatest  moment.  A  limited  or  semi-lim- 
ited atonement,  however  logical  its  deduction  from 
a  doctrine  of  decreed  reprobation,  could  not  for- 
ever withstand  the  first  fact  of  the  gospel  that 
Christ  died  for  all  men.  Nor  could  the  conception 
of  it  as  a  satisfaction  of  divine  justice  made  by- 
Christ's  bearing  the  penalty  of  sin,  whether  of  all 
men  or  only  the  elect,  long  stand  up  against  those 
conceptions  of  the  individual  which,  born  of  Puri- 
tanism, had  ripened  and  were  bearing  fruit  in  the 
political  life  of  the  country.  Under  the  younger 
Edwards  and  President  Dwight  it  was  modified 
until  it  became  what  is  known  as  the  "  governmental 
theory ;  "  that  is,  roughly  stated,  the  atonement 
maintains  the  general  justice  of  God  by  expressing 
his  hatred  of  sin  ;  this  done,  his  government  is 
sustained  and  He  is  able  to  forgive  sin.  It  con- 
tains an  idea  which  no  one  who  believes  in  the 
atonement  denies,  but  that  it  constitutes  the  atone- 
ment is  another  matter.  It  simply  states  the 
universal  truth  that  suffering  may  be  a  symbol  or 
expression  of  broken  law,  but  the  claim  that  its 
chief  purpose  is  to  maintain  the  rectoral  honor 
of  God  is  a  narrow  judicial  treatment  of  a  wide 
human  fact.  Under  Dwight  and  Taylor  and  other 
New  England  divines  it  was  built  up  into  a  vast 
scheme,  in  which  the  Christian  truths  were  clothed 
in  legal  forms  and  made  to  do  duty  in  maintaining 
what  was  termed  the  moral  government  of  God. 


242  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

It  had  a  great  deal  to  do  with  justice,  but  little 
with  life.  It  was  a  legal  transaction,  not  a  moral 
achievement.  It  is  true,  if  one  cares  to  think  of  it 
in  that  way,  but  it  is  not  the  way  in  which  men 
incline  to  think  except  under  the  drill  of  a  system 
that  requires  it.1 

Bushnell  shrank  from  it,  even  when  a  student 
at  New  Haven,  where  it  was  taught  with  power. 
It  was  for  him  too  shadowy  a  form  to  hold  the 
great  reality;  too  far  off  from  life  to  meet  its 
necessities,  and  it  lacked  the  link  that  bound  the 
individual  to  the  living  and  dying  Christ.2 

He  took  to  himself  at  the  outset  the  advantage  of 
a  descriptive  title  that  well-nigh  covers  his  entire 

1  John  McLeod  Campbell  quotes  Luther's  -warning  "  to  abstain 
from  the  curious  teaching  of  God's  majesty,"  and  while  not  lay- 
ing it  at  the  door  of  Owen  and  Edwards  in  their  discussion  of  the 
question,  "  What  is  divine  justice  ?  "  says :  "  It  would  have  been 
well  that  they  had  used  the  life  of  Christ  more  as  their  light." 
He  adds,  "  I  feel  as  if  the  recorded  work  of  Christ  were  contem- 
plated in  their  systems  in  the  light  of  (their)  reasoning,  rather 
than  that  reasoning  engaged  in  after  the  due  study  of  the  life 
of  Christ."  (The  Nature  of  the  Atonement,  pp.  50,  53.)  (This  criti- 
cism is  fundamental  and  covers  all  Calvinistic  theories  of  the 
atonement,  including  the  "governmental  theory.") 

2  Professor  A.  A.  Hodge,  in  his  Outlines  of  Theology,  on  other 
grounds  than  these,  speaks  of  it  as  "  a  theatrical  inculcation  of 
principles  which  were  not  truly  involved  in  the  case  ;  "  and  that 

1  "  it  degrades  the  infinite  work  of  Christ  to  the  poor  level  of  a 
governmental  adjustment,  whereas  it  was  the  most  glorious  ex- 
hibition of  eternal  principles."  While  Princeton  spoke  thus  of 
the  theory  of  the  atonement,  almost  universally  held  in  New 
England,  it  is  not  strange  that  the  wayfaring  man  was  puzzled  as 
to  the  way  whenever  he  crossed  the  Hudson  ;  nor  is  it  strange 
that  Bushnell  felt  driven  to  find  a  third  position  that  might  either 
absorb  or  consume  the  other  two. 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  243 

contention :  "  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice  Grounded 
in  Principles  of  Universal  Obligation."  In  later 
editions  the  title  was  varied  by  changing  "  of  uni- 
versal obligation  "  to  "  interpreted  by  human  anal- 
ogies." The  change  was  made  when  a  later  book, 
« Forgiveness  and  Law,"  was  incorporated  as  a 
second  volume.  It  is  not  to  be  understood  that 
he  abjured  the  phrase  "  universal  obligation ;  "  it 
is  far  more  expressive  of  his  underlying  thought 
than  the  adopted  phrase.  "  Universal  obligation  " 
offered  surer  ground  for  his  main  contention  than 
"human  analogies."  The  differentiating  element 
in  analogy  is  deceitful ;  the  unlikeness  is  lost  in 
the  general  likeness,  and  the  analogy  is  often  made 
to  carry  a  point  from  which  the  unlikeness  would 
exclude  it.  Moreover,  as  government  is  a  human 
analogy,  it  leads  back  into  the  governmental  theory, 
where  Bushnell  had  no  thought  of  going ;  but 
"  principles  of  universal  obligation "  sharpen  his 
meaning  in  the  "  moral  view." 

"  I  have  called  the  treatise  by  a  name  or  title 
that  more  nearly  describes  it  than  any  other.  It 
conceives  the  work  of  Christ  as  beginning  at  the 
point  of  sacrifice,  '  Vicarious  Sacrifice  ; '  ending 
at  the  same,  and  being  just  this  all  through,  —  so 
a  power  of  salvation  for  the  world.  And  yet  it 
endeavors  to  bring  this  sacrifice  only  so  much 
closer  to  our  feeling  and  perception,  in  the  fact 
that  it  makes  the  sacrifice  and  cross  of  Christ  his 
simple  duty,  and  not  any  superlative,  optional  kind 
of  good,  outside  of  all  the  common  principles  of 


244  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

virtue.  '  Grounded,'  I  have  said,  '  in  principles 
of  duty  and  right  that  are  universal.'  It  is  not 
goodness  over -good,  and  yielding  a  surplus  of 
merit  in  that  manner  for  us,  but  it  is  only  just  as 
good  as  it  ought  to  be,  or  the  highest  law  of  right 
required  it  to  be  ;  a  model,  in  that  view  for  us, 
and  a  power,  if  we  can  suffer  it,  of  ingenerated  life 
in  us  "  (p.  32). 

No  attempt  will  be  made  to  present  the  contents 
of  these  two  volumes  beyond  the  barest  outline  of 
the  argument  and  a  few  quotations  that  sum  up 
his  thought  and  indicate  the  spirit  in  which  he 
wrote.  The  latter  is  of  far  more  concern  than  the 
former.  We  are  not  now  interested,  except  in  the 
antiquarian's  way,  in  the  discussion  by  which  one 
view  or  another  of  the  atonement  was  upheld,  and 
we  feel  almost  as  little  interest  in  the  discussion  by 
which  it  was  redeemed  from  them.  The  a^e  has 
its  own  point  of  view,  and  does  not  depend  upon 
that  of  the  past. 

The  first  volume  is  divided  into  four  parts,  the 
first  of  which  contends  that  there  is  "  nothing 
superlative  in  vicarious  sacrifice,  or  above  the  uni- 
versal principles  of  right  and  duty." 

"  Love  is  a  principle  essentially  vicarious  in  its 
own  nature,  identifying  the  subject  with  others,  so 
as  to  suffer  their  adversities  and  pains,  and  taking 
on  itself  the  burden  of  their  evils.  It  does  not 
come  in  officiously  and  abruptly,  and  propose  to  be 
substituted  in  some  formal  and  literal  way  that 
overturns  all  the  moral  relations  of  law  and  desert, 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  245 

but  it  clings  to  the  evil  and  lost  man  as  in  feeling, 
afflicted  for  him,  burdened  by  his  ill  deserts,  in- 
capacities, and  pains,  encountering  gladly  any  loss 
or  suffering  for  his  sake.  Approving  nothing 
wrong  in  him,  but  faithfully  reproving  and  con- 
demning him  in  all  sin,  it  is  yet  made  sin  — 
plunged,  so  to  speak,  into  all  the  fortunes  of  sin, 
by  its  friendly  sympathy.  In  this  manner  it  is 
entered  vicariously  into  sacrifice  on  his  account. 
So  naturally  and  easily  does  the  vicarious  sacrifice 
commend  itself  to  our  intelligence,  by  the  stock 
ideas  and  feelings  out  of  which  it  grows  "  (p.  42). 
"  What  we  call  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  Christ 
is  nothing  strange  as  regards  the  principle  of  it, 
no  superlative,  unexampled,  and  therefore  unintel- 
ligible grace.  It  only  does  and  suffers,  and  comes 
into  substitution  for,  just  what  any  and  all  love 
will  according  to  its  degree.  And  in  this  view,  it 
is  not  something  higher  in  principle  than  our 
human  virtue  knows,  and  which  we  ourselves  are 
never  to  copy  or  receive,  but  it  is  to  be  understood 
by  what  we  know  already,  and  is  to  be  more  fully 
understood  by  what  we  are  to  know  hereafter,  when 
we  are  complete  in  Christ.  Nothing  is  wanting 
to  resolve  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  Jesus  but  the 
commonly  known,  always  familiar  principle  of 
love,  accepted  as  the  fundamental  law  of  duty, 
even  by  mankind.  Given  the  universality  of  love, 
the  universality  of  vicarious  sacrifice  is  given  also. 
Here  is  the  centre  and  deepest  spot  of  good,  or 
goodness,  conceivable.     At  this  point  we  look  into 


246  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

heaven's  eye  itself,  and  read  the  meaning  of  all 
heavenly  grace  "  (p.  48). 

He  protests  against  "  the  fiction  of  superlative 
merit,"  and  contends  that  "  Christ  was  under  obli- 
gation to  do  and  suffer  just  what  he  did  "  (p.  58). 
The  thought  is  extended  to  God :  "  In  these  bur- 
dens (of  Christ)  God  as  the  Eternal  Father  suf- 
fered before  him."  Here  Bushnell's  favorite  and 
even  dominant  thought  of  the  passibility  of  God 
comes  out,  —  an  idea  that  supplements  his  treat- 
ment of  the  humanity  of  Christ,  and  practically 
fills  its  place. 

"  Christ  is  a  mediator  only  in  the  sense  that,  as 
being  in  humanity,  he  is  a  medium  of  God  to  us ; 
such  a  medium  that,  when  we  cling  to  him  in  faith, 
we  take  hold  of  God's  own  life  and  feeling  as  the 
Infinite  Unseen,  and  are  taken  hold  of  by  Him, 
reconciled,  and  knit  everlastingly  to  Him,  by  what 
we  receive  "  (p.  71). 

"  Whatever  we  may  say,  or  hold,  or  believe, 
concerning  the  vicarious  sacrifice  of  Christ,  we 
are  to  affirm  in  the  same  manner  of  God.  The 
whole  deity  is  in  it,  in  it  from  eternity,  and  will  to 
eternity  be  "  (p.  73). 

He  contends  that  "  vicarious  sacrifice  belongs  to 
men  ;  "  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that "  Christ 
in  the  matter  of  vicarious  sacrifice  is  a  being  by 
himself"  (p.  106).  He  asserts  that  "  sacrifice  is 
the  economic  law  of  discipleship  "  (p.  116). 

Part  second  is  devoted  to  showing  that  "the 
life   and    sacrifice  of  Christ  consists  in  what  he 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  247 

does  to  become  a  renovating  and  saving  power  " 
(p.  127).  He  says  that  "  Christ  is  not  here  to 
die,  but  dies  because  he  is  here ;  "  and  brings  to 
his  support  the  great  name  of  Anselm,  who  said : 
"  He  suffered  death  of  his  own  accord,  not  as  an 
act  of  obedience,  but  on  account  of  his  obedience  in 
maintaining  right ;  for  he  held  out  so  persistently, 
that  he  met  death  on  account  of  it"  (p.  131). 
The  primary  object  of  Christ  is  "  the  healing  of 
souls,"  and  is  illustrated  by  the  "  Christed  con- 
sciousness of  the  disciples :  "  — 

"  It  is  not  the  account  of  their  Christian  experi- 
ence, and  of  the  gospel  as  related  thereto,  that 
Christ  has  done  something  before  God's  throne, 
and  wholly  apart  from  all  effect  in  them,  to  make 
their  acceptance  possible ;  and  then  that  the  Holy 
Spirit,  by  a  divine  efficiency  in  them,  changes  their 
hearts.  No  such  theologic  gospel  of  dry  wood  and 
hay  is  the  gospel  of  the  apostles.  They  find  every- 
thing, in  their  human  nature,  penetrated  by  the 
sense  and  savor  and  beauty  and  glory  of  Christ. 
Their  whole  consciousness  is  a  Christ-conscious- 
ness, —  everything  good  and  strong  in  them  is 
Christ  within.  Worsted  in  all  their  struggles  of 
will-work  and  self-regeneration,  they  still  chant 
their  liberty  in  Christ  and  say,  '  For  the  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  me  free.' 
Their  joy  is  to  be  consciously  Christed,  fully  pos- 
sessed by  Christ ;  to  have  him  dwell  in  them,  and 
spread  himself  over  and  through  all  the  senses  and 
sentiments,  and  willings,  and  works  of  their  life  " 
(p.  159). 


248  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

The  remaining  chapters  of  this  part  show  how 
"  Christ  in  his  sacrifice  becomes  the  moral  power 
of  God,"  and  set  forth  his  life  and  teachings  in 
that  light. 

"  The  view  of  Christ's  mission  I  have  been  try- 
ing to  establish  excludes  the  possibility,  it  will  be 
seen,  of  any  dogmatic  formula  in  which  it  may  be 
adequately  stated.  It  is  not  a  theorem,  or  form  of 
thought,  but  a  process,  and  the  process  includes 
all  the  facts  of  a  life.  .  .  .  The  Scriptures  them- 
selves do  not  know  how  to  make  up  any  formula 
.  .  .  that  will  adequately  express,  in  the  manner 
of  our  theologians,  the  import  of  Christ's  reconcil- 
ing work.  That  work,  accurately  speaking,  con- 
sisted in  exactly  the  whole  life  of  Jesus,  —  all  that 
he  said  and  did,  and,  to  human  impression,  was,  in 
the  conditions  through  which  he  passed"  (p.  213). 

The  moral  power  of  Christ  reaches  its  highest 
point  in  the  fact  that  "  he  humanizes  God  to 
men  "  1  (p.  230).     It  is  at  this  point  that  Bush- 

1  "  The  true  relation  of  mankind  to  the  Lord  Jesus  is  not 
grasped  until  he  is  regarded  as  the  Incarnation  of  the  Eternal 
Humanity  in  which  the  race  is  constituted.  The  philosophy  of 
the  prologue  to  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  essential  to  the  understand- 
ing of  the  advent  and  career  of  Jesus.  There  is  eternally  in 
the  Godhead  a  rational,  creative  humanity,  and  in  that  divine 
humanity  our  race  is  constituted.  .  .  .  The  Eternal  ideal  human- 
ity and  the  historic  fact  meet  in  the  prophet  of  Nazareth.  The 
Eternal  thus  manifests  himself  through  the  divinely  human  ca- 
reer, and,  after  the  history  is  made  which  forever  renders  impos- 
sible the  denial  that  the  ideal  is  the  real,  the  Eternal  returns  to 
his  preincarnate  fullness  and  universality."  (Rev.  George  A.  Gor- 
don, D.  D.,  The  Christ  of  To-day,  p.  235.) 

"  That  the  divine  Logos  rules  in  history  is  the  sole  presupposi- 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  249 

nell  urges  at  length  and  with  great  force  the  passi- 
bility  of  God  :  "  Here  then  it  is,  in  the  revelation 
of  a  suffering  God,  that  the  great  name  of  Jesus 
becomes  the  embodied  glory  and  the  Great  Moral 
Power  of  God.  In  it,  as  in  a  sun,  the  divine  feel- 
ing henceforth  shines  ;  so  that  whoever  believes  in 
his  name  takes  the  power  of  it,  and  is  transformed 
radically,  even  at  the  deepest  centre  of  life,  by  it, 
—  born  of  God  "  (p.  230).  But  it  is  moral  power, 
not  penal  nor  expiatory ;  the  natural  sympathy  of 
one  being  with  another  by  reason  of  love. 

We  could  almost  wish  the  book  had  ended  at 
this  point.  So  far  it  has  been  a  plea  for  the 
"  moral  view  "  of  the  atonement ;  and  there  could 
hardly  be  a  stronger  one.  It  might  well  be  de- 
tached from  the  rest  of  the  treatise  and  made  a 
handbook  on  the  subject.  It  may  be  surpassed 
in  theological  and  exegetical  accuracy,  but  not 
easily  can  its  contention  be  made  with  profounder 
insight  or  closer  sympathy.  It  was  hardly  possi- 
ble at  the  time  of  his  writing  wholly  to  avoid  the 
legalism  of  the  subject.  The  doctrine  had  almost 
no  place  in  the  thought  of  the  day  except  in  its 
relations  to  justice,  penalty,  forgiveness,  righteous- 
ness, and  justification,  —  all  treated  in  a  forensic 

tion  of  faith  which  Evolution  sets  up.  To  follow  the  manifold 
phenomenal  forms  of  this  Logos  is  the  task  of  science.  Theology 
so  far  as  it  is  a  science  of  religion,  and  not  merely  ecclesiasti- 
cal piecework,  finds  the  revelation  of  the  divine  Logos  in  the 
totality  of  religious  history,  in  all  the  expressions  and  forms  of 
development  of  the  human  consciousness  of  God."  (Pfleiderer, 
"  Evolution  and  Theology,"  The  New  World,  September,  1898, 
p.  429.) 


250  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

way.  But  these  are  matters  that  are  now  left  to 
every-day  thought,  to  the  natural  action  of  con- 
science, to  the  play  of  the  religious  nature,  to  the 
established  convictions  of  mankind,  to  what  all 
men  believe  and  no  man  denies,  to  the  life  of 
Christ,  and  to  a  conscious  experience  of  that  life. 
They  cannot  be  made  factors  in  a  legally  conceived 
theory  of  a  phase  of  Christ's  history  called  the 
atonement.1 

It  was  not  so  in  the  middle  of  the  century. 
Notwithstanding  the  modifications  of  the  doctrine 
since  Edwards,  some  of  which  were  improvements 
and  some  not,  it  was  still  imbedded  in  a  mixture 
of  legalism  and  metaphysics,  each  interpreted  by 
the  other.  Much  had  been  cast  off,  such  as  the 
theory  that  Christ  suffered  the  penalty  of  sin  ;  im- 
putation of  sin  to  Christ  and  of  his  righteousness 
to  the  believer ;  willingness  to  be  forever  cast  out 
for  the  glory  of  God  ;  the  sinfulness  of  "  unregen- 
erate  doings  ;  "  sin  the  necessary  means  of  the 
greatest  good  ;  salvation  freely  offered  yet  condi- 
tioned on  election,  —  all  of  which  bore  in  one  way 
or  another  on  the  atonement.2 

Its  hold  on  the  people  was  largely  due  to  the 
vast  amount  of  intolerable  doctrine  it  supplanted, 
—  such   as  a  limited   atonement,  in   the  light  of 

1  "A  theology  -which  does  not  correspond  with  the  deepest 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  human  heings  cannot  he  a  true  Theol- 
ogy"    (F.  D.  Maurice,  Introduction  to  Theological  Essays.) 

2  For  a  most  lucid  statement  of  the  early  New  England  doc- 
trine, see  Professor  Fisher's  History  of  Christian  Doctrine,  pp. 
394-419. 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  251 

which  it  seemed  reason  itself.  But  it  was  cold, 
hard,  and  distant ;  it  was  expressive,  not  impres- 
sive ;  spectacular,  not  real.  In  a  word,  it  was  not 
life,  but  a  legal  interpretation  of  a  phase  of  life 
which  had  been  modified  until  it  seemed  to  be  the 
whole  of  it.  It  is  possible  to  set  the  atonement  as 
it  was  unfolded  in  New  England,  in  many  lights. 
The  able  authors  of  "  Progressive  Orthodoxy " 
(p.  51)  say  of  New  England  theology  that  "it 
attempted  to  find  the  ethical  ends  secured  by  the 
atonement.  It  emphasized  the  fact  that  other 
methods  than  punishment  can  express  the  char- 
acter of  sin."  The  New  Haven  School  led  up  to 
this  point  by  its  theory  of  the  atonement  as  con- 
sisting in  an  expression  of  God's  abhorrence  of 
sin,  and  regard  for  his  law.  Bushnell  broadened 
and  ultimated  this  expression  by  making  the  ethi- 
cal good  of  men  the  end  of  the  atonement ;  that  is, 
he  took  it  out  of  the  region  of  legalism  and  laid  it 
straight  down  upon  life  itself.  The  difference  is  as 
great  as  that  between  a  picture  and  the  landscape 
it  outlines.  It  may  be  possible  to  get  on  without 
one,  but  not  without  the  other.  Bushnell,  rather 
needlessly,  devotes  much  time  to  the  picture.  He 
thought  it  was  necessary  to  enter  into  this  world 
of  legalism  in  order  to  deliver  the  doctrine  out  of 
it.  It  must  also  be  said  that  he  himself  had  not 
fully  escaped  from  it.  No  man  wholly  rids  him- 
self of  the  dominant  ideas  of  his  age ;  or  if  he 
does,  he  is  without  a  field  and  a  vocation.  He 
felt  that  he  must  justify  "  the  moral  view  "  in  this 


252  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

world  of  legalism.  The  doctrine  thus  preserved 
something  of  historical  continuity  and  allied  itself 
to  the  form  at  least  of  natural  growth ;  and  above 
all,  it  avoided  schism.  It  is  possible,  indeed,  that 
the  thought  of  the  coming  age  would  itself  have 
eliminated  the  legalism  left  in  the  doctrine,  and 
saved  a  discussion  that  could  not  do  the  work  of 
time  and  growth. 

He  begins  by  a  protest  against  resolving 
Christ's  work  under  "  political  analogies "  unless 
they  are  carefully  qualified  by  others. 

"  What  is  said  of  law  and  justice,  under  the 
analogies  of  human  government,  does  not  appear 
to  hold,  without  qualifications  not  given.  It  can- 
not be  that  such  analogies  of  law  and  justice  and 
penalty  and  pardon,  prepared  in  the  civil  state, 
are  not  to  be  used  in  religion.  Like  all  other 
analogies  of  the  outward  life,  they  were  designed 
to  be.  And  yet  there  are  few  close  observers,  I 
suspect,  who  have  not  sometimes  been  so  far  im- 
pressed, by  the  fatalities  discovered  in  attempts  to 
resolve  Christ's  work  under  this  kind  of  analogy, 
as  to  seriously  doubt  whether  anything  reliable 
can  be  thus  accomplished.  There  certainly  can- 
not be,  unless  the  analogy  is  carefully  qualified  by 
others,  such,  for  example,  as  those  of  the  family, 
the  field,  the  shop,  the  market.  There  is  also 
another  kind  of  qualifier,  that  is  obtained  by 
getting  a  partially  distinct  footing  for  the  subject, 
in  a  province  of  thought  which  is  not  under  such 
analogies  "  (p.  233). 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  253 

This  province  is  the  assumption  that  law  is 
"  before  God's  will  and  before  his  instituting 
act :  "  it  is  "  that  necessary,  everlasting,  ideal  law 
of  right,  which,  simply  to  think,  is  to  be  for- 
ever obliged  by  it"  (p.  235).  Obedience  to  this 
law  makes  a  complete  society  until  disobedLr 
ence  brings  in  confusion  and  disorder,  when  God 
institutes  "  government  and  redemption  together  " 
(p.  243).  While  asserting  the  reality  of  the  Fall, 
he  admits  that  it  is  mythical  in  form.  It  stands 
between  primal  or  ideal  law  and  instituted  govern- 
ment. Here  he  finds  "  the  want  and  true  place  of 
redemption.  It  must  have  some  primary  and  even 
principal  reference  to  the  law  before  government, 
and  not  to  any  instituted  law,  or  statute,  or  judk 
cial  penalty  existing  under  that  "  (p.  251). 

However  uncertain  this  line  of  thought  may  be, 
his  purpose  is  clear ;  namely,  to  get  the  doctrine 
out  of  the  cumbering  analogies  of  human  justice 
into  the  realm  of  eternal  law,  where  it  easily  and 
naturally  allies  itself  to  life  and  the  direct  con- 
sciousness of  right  and  wrong,  and  especially,  as 
"  instituted  government  inaugurates  justice  and 
penal  sanctions,"  he  closes  the  door  against  these 
troublesome  factors  and  secures  an  open  field  for 
"  the  moral  view."  Still,  he  admits  that  if  insti- 
tuted government  does  not  contain  redemption,  it 
is  a  necessary  co-factor  of  it,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  rejects  all  penal  views  and  compensations  to 
justice,  and  the  like.  In  short,  he  takes  out  of 
instituted  government  what  suits  his  purpose  and 


254  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

leaves  the  rest.  In  this  he  is  entirely  justified, 
using,  as  he  does,  a  criterion  superior  to  that  of 
human  analogies.  "  God  nowhere  signifies  that 
he  has  given  up  the  world  to  the  prior  right  of 
justice,  and  that  mercy  shall  come  in,  only  as  she 
pays  a  gate-fee  for  the  right  of  entrance."  Still, 
after  many  pages  of  keen  analysis,  he  finds  that 
they  "  coalesce  at  the  root."  The  only  surprise 
is  that  this  should  ever  have  been  doubted.  His 
conclusion  is :  — 

"  On  the  whole,  this  matter  of  a  contrived  com- 
pensation to  justice,  which  so  many  take  for  a 
gospel,  appears  to  me  to  contain  about  the  worst 
reflection  upon  God's  justice  that  could  be  stated, 
without  some  great  offense  against  reverence ;  for 
in  whatever  manner  the  compensation,  or  judicial 
satisfaction,  is  conceived  to  be  made,  in  the  suffer- 
ing of  Christ,  we  shall  find  everything  pushed  off 
the  basis  of  truth.  The  justice  satisfied  is  satis- 
fied with  injustice !  the  forgiveness  prepared  is 
forgiveness  on  the  score  of  pay  !  the  judgment-day 
award  disclaims  the  fact  of  forgiveness  after  pay- 
ment made,  and  even  refuses  to  be  satisfied,  tak- 
ing payment  again  !  What,  meantime,  has  become 
of  the  penalties  threatened,  and  where  is  the  truth 
of  the  law?  The  penalties  threatened,  as  against 
wrong-doers,  are  not  to  be  executed  on  them,  be- 
cause they  have  been  executed  on  a  right-doer ! 
viz.,  Christ.  And  it  is  only  in  some  logically 
formal,  or  theologically  fictitious  sense,  that  they 
are  executed  even  on  him"  (p.  293). 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  255 

But  if  Christ  does  not  bear  the  penalty  of  the 
law,  he  honors  it :  "  Christ  has  set  the  law  precept 
in  a  position  of  great  honor  and  power,  enduing  it 
with  such  life  and  majesty,  in  men's  convictions, 
as  it  otherwise  never  could  have  had.  (1.)  He 
proposes,  we  have  seen,  no  remission  of  sins 
which  does  not  include  a  full  recovery  to  the  law. 
(2.)  All  that  he  does  and  suffers  in  his  sacrifice, 
he  as  truly  does  for  the  resanctification  of  the  law 
as  for  our  recovery.  (3.)  In  his  incarnation,  he 
incarnates  the  same,  and  brings  it  nigh  to  men's 
feelings  and  convictions,  by  the  personal  footing 
he  gains  for  it  in  humanity.  (4.)  He  honors  it 
again  by  his  obedience,  winch  is,  in  fact,  a  revela- 
tion of  God' s  own  everlasting  obedience,  before 
the  eyes  of  mankind ;  the  grandest  fact  of  human 
knowledge"  (p.  321). 

Still,  legal  penal  enforcements  are  necessary, 
and  are  associated  with  the  power  of  Christ,  so 
that  he  "  combines  both  kinds  of  motivity,"  —  his 
own  moral  influence  and  natural  retributive  forces. 
Disengaging  this  from  its  setting,  we  find  ourselves 
very  near  the  simple  fact  that  the  influence  of 
Christ  and  the  every-day  laws  of  morality  are  hand 
in  hand.  Since  Christ  has  taken  into  his  work 
the  natural  retributions  of  sin  as  a  co-working  fac- 
tor, he  declares  the  fact  in  two  ways  :  "  First,  eter- 
nal punishment ;  second,  the  judgment  of  the  world 
by  himself."  Bushnell,  shrinking  somewhat  from 
the  first,  says  that  "  eternal  need  not  mean  eternal 
in  the  exact  speculative  sense,"  but  "  it  is  the  pun- 


256  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

ishment  of  the  eternal  state,  and  is  best  appre- 
hended here,  when  taken  as  a  practical  finality." 
He  refuses  to  "  make  a  bad  eternity  hang  on  the 
form  of  a  word."  He  was  incapable  of  hedging, 
but  this  careful  use  of  words  is  made  to  lead  in  opin- 
ions which,  though  stated  hypothetically,  reached 
almost  to  convictions,  such  as  the  wasting  away  of 
the  soul  until  the  "  religious  nature  is  likely  to  be 
nearly,  or  quite  gone  by  "  (p.  337)  ;  not  extinc- 
tion, it  will  be  observed,  but  practically  that, — 
"  an  asymptote  curve  forever  approaching  a  fixed 
point,  but  never  reaching  it."  The  subject  is 
practically  treated  in  a  sermon  on  "  The  Capacity 
for  Religion  Extirpated  by  Disuse."  (Sermons  for 
the  New  Life,  p.  165.) 

It  is  before  such  speculation  as  this  that  one 
draws  off.  His  definition  of  "  eternal  "  opens  a  door 
that  humanity  would  enter.  "  Purgatorial  resto- 
r-ationism,"  he  says,  "  has  no  show  of  evidence 
or  possibility."  His  argument  requires  a  penalty 
commensurate  with  the  moral  elements  contained 
in  salvation,  and  he  finds  it  not  in  conscious  pain, 
but  in  a  wasting  away  of  faculties,  thus  depriving 
penalty  of  its  edge  under  such  psychological  possi- 
bilities that  it  may  cease  to  be  penalty.  The  mind 
refuses  to  follow  him  on  this  conjectural  path. 
But,  still  shrinking  from  eternal  punishment,  he 
devotes  two  pages  (pp.  338,  339)  to  a  vigorous 
protest  against "  the  infinity  of  future  punishment," 
meaning  quantity,  not  duration.  He  thus  ran 
counter  to  the  prevailing  thought  on  the  subject, 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  257 

which  made  much  of  time  and  intensity.  "  Since 
the  law  of  God  is  the  best  law  possible,  he  ought, 
in  true  justice,  to  make  the  strongest  expression  of 
attachment  to  it  that  is  possible  ;  therefore  that  he 
ought  to  inflict  the  strongest  possible  punishment 
for  the  breach  of  it  "(p.  339),  —  an  argument  that 
he  treats  with  ridicule,  and  asserts  that  penalty 
will  be  according  to  demerit.  He  also  admits  with 
Baxter,  though  less  heartily,  "  that  God  is  ready, 
at  any  future  point  in  the  run  of  it  (misery),  to 
embrace,  in  everlasting  reconciliation,  any  truly 
repenting  soul "  (p.  340).  Bushnell  reduces  the 
possibility  of  this  to  hopeless  improbability  under 
psychological  processes  for  which  there  are  no  sure 
data.  His  full  position  on  endless  punishment  is 
this :  — 

"  Assuming  all  these  qualifications  of  measure 
and  degree,  there  is  nothing  left  in  the  matter  of 
endless  punishment,  by  which  we  can  fitly  be  dis- 
turbed, except  that  it  does  not  bring  out  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  that  one  state  of  realized  unity 
and  complete  order  which  we  most  naturally  desire, 
and  think  to  be  worthiest  of  his  greatness  and 
sovereignty.  It  certainly  would  be  more  agreeable, 
if  we  could  have  this  hope  ;  and  many  are  resolved 
to  have  it  without  Christ's  permission,  if  they  can- 
not have  it  with.  They  even  make  it  a  point  of 
merit  to  seize  this  honor  bravely  for  God,  on  their 
own  responsibility,  and  for  it,  if  they  must,  defy 
the  Scripture.  I  think  otherwise,  and  could  even 
count  it  a  much  braver  thing  to  willingly  be  less 


258  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

brave,  and,  despite  of  our  natural  longings  for 
some  issue  of  God's  plan  that  is  different,  follow 
still  the  lead  of  the  Master  "  (p.  341). 

It  is  strange  that  Bushnell  was  not  more  im- 
pressed by  what  he  so  clearly  saw ;  namely,  that 
endless  punishment  "  does  not  bring  out  the  King- 
dom of  God  in  that  one  state  of  realized  unity  and 
complete  order  which  ...  we  think  worthiest  of 
his  greatness  and  sovereignty."  It  is  difficult  to 
explain  this  lowering  view  of  the  kingdom  of  God 
which  his  own  statement  would  seem  to  contradict. 
Bushnell  held  the  key  to  a  better  interpretation  in 
his  theory  of  language,  but  failed  to  use  it  here. 
His  treatment  of  the  subject  is  labored  and  un- 
certain ;  the  heart  protested  against  the  head,  and 
the  head  still  felt  the  sway  of  theories  of  inspira- 
tion and  interpretation  that  were  to  endure  yet 
longer.  But  in  spite  of  this  stringency,  he  was 
vigorously  criticised  as  "  scarcely  knowing  what 
the  conception  of  penalty  is  "  (The  New  Englander, 
vol.  xxv.  p.  252).  His  defective  conception  was 
thought  to  determine  his  theory  of  atonement. 
If  atonement  is  an  endurance  of  penalty,  the  two 
must  be  fully  correlated ;  and  if  penalty  is  the  ex- 
pression of  God's  displeasure,  the  atonement  must 
express  it.  Such  was  the  logic.  Bushnell  did 
not  deny  it,  but  he  denied  that  it  exhausted  the 
atonement  or  was  its  central  idea.  But  to  say 
that  he  had  no  conception  of  penalty  is  like  assert- 
ing that  Newton  knew  nothing  of  gravitation.  His 
pages  blaze  and  thunder  with  it,  but  he  speaks  of 
more  than  displeasure  with  sin. 


"THE   VICARIOUS   SACRIFICE"  259 

The  remaining  chapters  of  part  third  are  devoted 
to  a  thorough  exposition  and  criticism  of  the  pre- 
vailing theory  of  substitution  and  the  older  the- 
ories of  penal  satisfaction,  followed  by  an  exceed- 
ingly able  discussion  of  justification  by  faith,  — 
finding  in  "  the  moral  view  "  the  exact  field  where 
this  great  doctrine  has  full  and  free  play. 

But  a  stronger  objection  to  the  "  moral  view  " 
than  any  he  had  dealt  with  was  to  be  found  in 
the  sacrificial  terms  in  which  the  work  of  Christ 
is  clothed  in  the  Scriptures.  To  get  the  sacrifi- 
cial Christ  out  of  the  category  of  legal  expiation 
into  that  of  moral  power  was  necessary  in  order 
to  make  good  his  contention.  It  is  where  the  doc- 
trine halts  to-day,  —  held  back  by  literalism,  by 
over-stringent  views  of  inspiration,  by  the  not  yet 
ascertained  place  of  sacrifice  in  the  ethnic  reli- 
gions, but  chiefly  by  failure  to  understand  what  the 
writer  contended  for,  namely,  moral  power  ;  and 
also  by  failure  to  see  that  Christ,  so  far  as  he 
was  related  to  Judaism,  was  in  the  line  of  the 
prophets  and  not  of  the  priests.  Bushnell  fought 
his  battle  at  close  quarters  over  the  meaning  and 
use  of  sacrifices.  They  are  "  a  language  faculty," 
"  vehicles  of  religion,"  "  spiritual  word-figures," 
"  altar-forms,"  but  they  had  their  meaning  for 
the  people  who  used  them,  and  were  not  to  them 
types  of  Christ,  though  they  have  become  such,  — 
"  in  that  common,  widely  general,  always  rational 
sense,  that  all  physical  objects  and  relations,  taken 
up  as  roots  of  language,  are  types,  and  are  designed 


260  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

to  be,  of  the  spiritual  meanings  to  be  figured  by 
them,  or  built  into  spiritual  words  upon  them.  A 
type  is,  in  this  view,  a  natural  analogon,  or  figure, 
of  some  mental  or  spiritual  idea ;  a  thing  in  form 
to  represent,  and  be  the  name  of,  what  is  out  of 
all  physical  conditions,  and  therefore  has  no  form  " 
(p.  458).  Christ  is  a  sacrifice,  but  not  a  Jewish 
sacrifice,  and  while  he  takes  away  sin,  it  is  not  in 
the  way  in  which  the  sacrifices  of  the  altar  were 
thought  to  take  it  away.  He  thus  carries  the 
whole  matter  over  into  the  world  of  the  spirit,  — 
something  very  necessary  to  be  done,  unless  Chris- 
tianity is  to  be  a  continuation  of  Judaism. 

Bushnell's  theory  of  language  always  stood  him 
in  good  stead ;  and  it  was  by  no  means  a  weak 
staff  to  lean  upon.  It  did  for  him  what  evolution 
does  for  the  theologian  of  to-day,  who  views  Christ 
not  as  a  type  of  Jewish  sacrifice,  but  as  a  final  and 
perfect  form  of  all  sacrifice.  Bushnell  went  even 
deeper,  and  found  the  spiritual  meaning  under  all 
forms  of  sacrifice.  The  subject  is  most  ably 
treated  in  his  essay  on  "  Our  Gospel  a  Gift  to  the 
Imagination,"  perhaps  his  best  minor  contribution 
to  theology.1  "  Call  the  words  '  old  clothes  '  then 
of  the  Hebrews,  putting  what  contempt  we  may 
upon  them,  still  they  are  such  types  and  metaphors 
of  God's  mercy  as  he  has  been  able  to  prepare,  and 
Christ  is  in  them  as  in '  glorious  apparel ' !  No  liv- 
ing disciple,  having  once  gotten  the  sense  of  these 
types  of  the  altar,  will  ever  try  to  get  his  gospel 
1  Building  Eras. 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  261 

out  of  them  and  preach  it  in  the  common  terms 
of  language.  Quite  as  certainly  will  he  never  try, 
having  once  gotten  their  meaning,  to  hold  them 
literally,  —  Christ  made  literally  sin  for  us,  a  lit- 
eral Lamb,  literal  sacrifice,  bleeding  literally  for 
the  uses  of  his  blood.  But  he  will  want  them 
as  the  dear  interpreters  and  equivalents  of  God's 
mercy  in  the  cross,  putting  himself  before  them  to 
read  and  read  again,  and  drink  and  drink  again, 
their  full  divine  meanings  into  his  soul.  Beholding 
more  truths  in  their  faces  than  all  the  contrived 
theories  and  speculated  propositions  of  schools,  he 
will  stay  fast  by  them,  or  in  them,  wanting  never 
to  get  clear  of  them,  or  away  from  the  dear  and 
still  more  dear  impression  of  their  power." 

His  final  and  best  word  on  the  subject  is  in  the 
same  essay,  where  he  speaks  of  the  "  metaphors 
of  the  altar." 

"  Take  them  as  they  rise  in  the  apostolic  teach- 
ings, God's  figures  for  the  men  of  old,  in  the  time 
then  present,  and  for  us  in  the  time  now  present ; 
then  as  facts  of  atoning,  now  as  metaphors  of  the 
same  ;  and  they  will  be  full  of  God's  meaning,  we 
shall  know  ourselves  atoned  once  for  all  by  their 
power.  But  if  we  undertake  to  make  a  science 
out  of  them,  and  speculate  them  into  a  rational 
theory,  it  will  be  no  gospel  that  we  make,  but  a 
poor  dry  jargon  rather ;  a  righteousness  that  makes 
nobody  righteous,  a  justice  satisfied  by  injustice,  a 
mercy  on  the  basis  of  pay,  a  penal  deliverance  that 
keeps   on   foot  all   the  penal  liabilities.     All  at- 


262  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

tempts  to  think  out  the  cross  and  have  it  in  dog- 
matic statement  have  resulted  only  in  disagreement 
and  distraction.  And  yet  there  is  a  remarkable 
consent  of  utterance,  we  plainly  discover,  when  the 
cross  is  preached,  as  for  salvation's  sake,  in  the 
simple  use  of  the  scripture  symbols  taken  all  as 
figures  for  the  time  then  present." 

The  first  volume  closes  with  a  valuable  homiletic 
chapter  in  which  is  urged  a  preaching  of  Christ's 
life:  "  I  think  it  would  hardly  be  possible  for  a 
preacher  to  be  too  much  in  the  facts  of  his  life  " 
(p.  533).  This  remark  gives  both  the  keynote 
and  unity  to  his  treatise  :  namely,  what  he  was 
fond  of  calling  "  a  first-hand "  gospel,  Christ  in 
contact  with  the  believer  until  the  power  of  one  is 
realized  in  the  other,  and  he  is  "  Christed  "  through 
and  through ;  "  Christ,  the  mould  of  our  doc- 
trine, the  medium  of  our  prayers,  the  soul  of  our 
liberty,  the  informing  grace  and  music  of  our 
hymns,  wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctification,  and 
redemption  "  (p.  551). 

The  second  volume  of  "  The  Vicarious  Sacri- 
fice "  was  written  ten  years  after  the  publication 
of  the  first.  It  awoke  less  interest  than  any  other 
of  his  treatises.  While  the  first  volume,  especially 
the  first  two  parts,  stands  for  a  theory  of  the  atone- 
ment clearly  defined  and  well  recognized  in  the 
theological  world,  the  second  is  regarded  as  a 
refinement,  and  refinements  in  theology  are  not 
now  popular,  even  if  they  are  true.  But  the 
growth    of  this    volume    is     most     characteristic. 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  263 

Bushnell  never  could  let  go  a  subject  in  which  he 
had  become  interested.  His  mind  was  of  a  pene- 
trative, exploring  character.  Wherever  he  was, 
in  Europe,  Cuba,  Minnesota,  California,  he  saw 
all  there  was  to  be  seen,  and  worked  his  way  down 
to  the  last  analysis  of  whatever  was  explicable. 
Had  he  been  an  inventor,  —  and  the  blood  ran  in 
his  veins,  —  the  patents  would  have  appeared 
in  rapid  succession.  Theology,  from  its  nature, 
admits  of  endless  phases  ;  and  because  it  is  a  sci- 
ence, it  is  always  unfolding  under  the  increase  of 
knowledge.  Bushnell  was  through  and  through 
a  theologian,  though  not  a  technical  one,  and  he 
fulfilled  his  vocation.  "  New  light  "  was  always 
coming  to  him.  He  cared  more  for  the  new  than 
for  the  old,  nor  was  he  careful  to  preserve  a  formal 
harmony  between  them.  More  than  once  he  vir- 
tually retracted  or  greatly  altered  positions  he  had 
taken,  but,  it  should  be  said,  generally  not  with 
advantage  to  himself  as  a  thinker.  His  first  con- 
tentions usually  carried  his  real  convictions,  and  he 
gravitated  back  to  them. 

We  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  the  two  volumes 
of  "  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice "  are  at  variance. 
His  own  word  is  sufficient  on  this  point.  He 
says :  "  I  recant  no  one  of  my  denials."  "  I  still 
assert  the  '  moral  view  '  of  the  atonement  as  be- 
fore, and  even  more  completely  than  before."  He 
describes  the  genesis  of  the  book  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  was  writing  a  discourse  on  the  inquiry,  How 
shall  a  man  be  able  to  entirely  and  perfectly  for- 


264  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

give  his  enemy,  so  as  to  forever  sweeten  the  bitter- 
ness of  his  wounded  feeling  and  leave  no  sense  of 
personal  revulsion?  I  cannot  give  the  whole  ar- 
gument here,  but  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  I  was 
brought  squarely  down  upon  the  discovery  that 
nothing  will  ever  accomplish  the  proposed  real  and 
true  forgiveness,  but  to  make  cost  in  the  endeavor, 
such  cost  as  new-tempers  and  liquefies  the  reluc- 
tant nature.  And  this  making  cost  will  be  his 
propitation  of  himself.  Why  not  say  this  of  all 
moral  natures,  why  not  of  the  Great  Propitiation 
itself  ?  "  (vol.  ii.  p.  12). 

He  thus  comes  to  his  subject  in  a  natural  way. 
The  first  volume  treated  "  the  work  of  Christ  as  a 
reconciling  power  on  man  ; "  he  will  now  treat  it 
on  the  God-ward  side.  The  human  analogy  sug- 
gests that  God  forgives  as  man  does,  by  entering 
painfully  into  some  experience  or  work  for  the 
offender ;  this  assures  him  of  forgiveness,  and 
that  no  impediments  lie  in  the  way  of  it.  So  far  in 
the  first  volume  ;  in  the  second,  the  analogy  is  car- 
ried further  and  made  to  cover  the  alleged  fact 
that  one  object  of  a  man's  suffering  for  an  offender 
against  him  is  to  allay  the  resentment  of  his  own 
moral  nature  against  the  offense,  and  thus  to  make 
himself  propitious  or  ready  to  forgive  ;  and  it  is 
the  knowledge  that  this  has  been  done  that  se- 
cures power  over  the  offender.  Bushnell  carries 
the  analogy  to  God,  who  in  the  sufferings  of  Christ 
propitiates  himself.  If  this  is  true  "of  all  moral 
natures,  why  not  of  the  Great  Propitiation  itself  ?  " 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  265 

He  defines  his  position,  as  compared  with  that 
taken  in  volume  one,  as  follows :  — 

"  I  asserted  a  propitiation  before,  but  accounted 
for  the  word  as  one  by  which  the  disciple  objec- 
tivizes  his  own  feelings,  conceiving  that  God  him- 
self is  representatively  mitigated  or  become  pro- 
pitious, because  he  is  himself  inwardly  reconciled 
to  God.  Instead  of  this,  I  now  assert  a  real  pro- 
pitiation of  God,  rinding  it  in  evidence  from  the 
propitiation  we  instinctively  make  ourselves,  when 
we  heartily  forgive.  So  if  it  should  be  imagined 
that  I  now  give  in  to  the  legal-substitution,  legal- 
satisfaction  theory,  it  will  only  be  true  that  I  assert 
a  scheme  of  discipline  for  man,  which  is  contrived 
to  work  its  own  settlement,  in  being  fulfilled  and 
consummated  by  an  obedience  in  the  higher  plane 
of  liberty  itself. 

"  I  still  assert  the  '  moral  view '  of  the  atonement 
as  before,  and  even  more  completely  than  before, 
inasmuch  as  I  propose  to  interpret  all  that  is 
prepared  and  suffered  in  the  propitiation  of  God 
and  the  justification  of  men,  by  a  reference  to  the 
moral  pronouncements  of  human  nature  and  so- 
ciety ;  assuming  that  nothing  can  be  true  of  God, 
or  of  Christ,  which  is  not  true  in  some  sense  more 
humano,  and  is  not  made  intelligible  by  human 
analogies.  We  cannot  interpret  God,  as  any  one 
may  see,  except  by  what  we  find  in  our  own  per- 
sonal instincts  and  ideas"  (p.  14). 

It  will  be  observed  that  he  strives  to  keep  clear  of 
the  legalism  he  has  abjured,  and  to  find  the  grounds 


266  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

of  his  contention,  not  in  contrived  theories  of  jus- 
tice and  forgiveness  and  satisfaction  and  the  like, 
but  in  "  human  analogies."  He  thus  keeps  among 
the  laws  "  before  government,"  for  which  he  con- 
tended at  the  outset,  and  in  the  real  world  of 
human  life.  However  it  may  be  with  his  main 
point,  it  is  here  that  the  book  has  substantial 
value.  Whatever  is  done  in  this  realm  is  legiti- 
mate, but  while  our  author  steers  fairly  clear  of 
legalism,  the  suspicion  arises  that  but  for  legalism 
he  would  not  iiave  laid  down  his  thesis,  and  that 
something  of  its  shadow  overclouds  it.  Still,  if 
he  errs,  it  is  not  legalism  that  leads  him  astray, 
but  symbolism,  the  chief  seducer  in  the  world  of 
thought,  its  necessity  and  its  snare.  If  given  full 
rein,  it  drives  straight  towards  pantheism ;  if  too 
sternly  checked,  thought  takes  refuge  in  its  own 
unwarranted  creations  that  are  sure  to  lack  the 
unity  secured  by  symbol.  It  was  a  rule  and  a 
passion  with  Bushnell  to  think  under  symbols. 
Had  he  not  lived  in  New  England,  he  might  have 
been  a  pantheist.  If  he  is  ever  at  fault,  it  is  in 
overworking  the  apparent  likeness  of  one  thing  to 
another,  —  so  much  more  does  he  see  the  likeness 
than  the  unlikeness,  and  not  sufficiently  perceiv- 
ing that  it  is  through  unlikeness  that  complexity 
comes  in  and  prevents  the  world  from  becoming  a 
solid  uniformity.  It  is  well  to  be  able  to  perceive 
symbols  ;  it  is  better  to  be  able  to  define  their 
scope.  Bushnell  himself  sees  the  need  of  such 
limitation  when  he  speaks  of  "  the  grand  analogy, 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  267 

or  almost  identity,  that  subsists  between  our  moral 
nature  and  that  of  God ;  so  that  our  moral  patho- 
logies and  those  of  God  make  faithful  answer  to 
each  other,  and  He  is  brought  so  close  to  us  that 
almost  anything  that  occurs  in  the  workings  or 
exigencies  of  our  moral  instincts  may  even  be 
expected  in  his  "  (p.  35).  It  is  on  the  strength 
of  this  word  almost  that  we  hesitate  to  carry  a 
possible  feature  of  human  forgiveness  into  the 
divine  nature  to  such  an  extent  as  to  claim  that 
God  has  need  to  propitiate  himself  in  order  to 
bring  about  a  full  sense  of  forgiveness.  That 
God  suffers  with  and  for  men  in  Christ  rests  on 
the  broad  analogy  of  Fatherhood,  but  that  He 
suffers  in  order  to  become  propitious,  or  rather 
by  suffering  becomes  propitious,  —  for  tins  point 
is  guarded  on  page  53,  — is  a  doubtful  feature  of 
the  analogy.  It  seems  to  detract  from  simple 
love,  which  needs  nothing  to  complete  itself,  and 
certainly  in  God  needs  nothing  to  start  it  into 
exercise.  It  savors  of  the  schools  and  the  systems 
and  the  schemes  rather  than  of  the  simple  human 
love  that  overspreads  the  life  of  Christ.  This, 
indeed,  Bushnell  would  have,  and  fills  pages  with 
protests  against  regarding  it  in  any  other  light, 
but  he  fails  to  remove  the  impression. 

The  book  was  hailed  by  his  orthodox  critics  as 
indicating  a  return  to  their  ranks,  but  while  yield- 
ing them  a  certain  satisfaction,  it  brought  no  real 
gain  to  the  older  orthodoxy;  it  was  too  full  of 
patripassianism,  and  the  Sabellian  flavor  still  hung 


268  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

round  the  writer,  notwithstanding  his  assent  to  the 
Nicene  phrases.  Nor  coidd  it  be  incorporated  into 
the  older  systems  as  a  working  factor ;  it  crowded 
out  more  than  it  brought  to  them.  It  is  read  by 
his  sympathizers  with  admiration  and  approval  of 
its  side  discussions,  but  it  wins  little  assent  to  the 
main  point ;  the  currents  of  thought  run  in  other 
directions  and  will  not  be  turned  back.  In  some 
respects  the  book  is  quite  modern.  Its  intense 
patripassianism,  often  magnificent  in  the  energy 
with  which  it  is  urged,  goes  well  with  the  following 
quotation  from  a  writer  who  represents  a  preva- 
lent philosophy,  and  even  suggests  whether  they  do 
not  bring  up  at  the  same  point  of  semi-pantheism. 
"Your  suffering,  just  as  it  is  in  you,  is  God's 
suffering.  No  chasm  divides  you  from  God.  He 
is  not  remote  from  you  even  in  his  eternity.  He  is 
here.  His  eternity  means  merely  the  completeness 
of  his  experience.  But  that  completeness  is  inclu- 
sive. Your  sorrow  is  one  of  the  included  facts."  1 
What  Mr.  Royce  says  of  God's  relation  to  the  evil 
of  suffering,  Bushnell  would  say  of  his  relation  to 
sin ;  that  is,  God  enters  into  the  very  pains  of  the 
sinner  both  by  a  necessity  of  his  nature,  and  as  a 
real  way  of  securing  power  over  him.  The  use 
made  by  both  authors  of  the  passability  of  God  — 
one  in  explaining  evil,  the  other  redemption  —  is 
interesting  in  its  bearing  on  Theism,  and  possibly 
each  serves  to  "  point  the  way  we  are  going." 
In  summing  up  these  two  volumes  we  would 
1  Professor  Josiah  Royce,  Studies  of  Good  and  Evil,  p.  26. 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  269 

say  that  their  value  consists  in  a  clear  and  forceful 
presentation  of  "  the  moral  view "  of  the  atone- 
ment. Bushnell  domiciled  it  in  the  religious 
thought  of  the  day,  and  saved  it  from  utter  loss 
by  recasting  it  in  the  terms  of  human  experience. 
It  is  a  view  of  the  atonement  that  deepens  and 
strengthens  life  at  every  point.  Its  central  idea 
is  that  it  puts  the  believer  directly  into  the  very 
process  by  which  Christ  became  a  redeemer,  and 
is  saving  the  world ;  that  Christ  does  nothing  for 
a  man  beyond  what  the  man  hhnself  is  required 
to  do  for  other  men,  and  that  it  is  exactly  at  this 
point  that  the  world  is  redeemed  ;  —  the  principles 
underlying  salvation  are  of  "  universal  obligation." 
It  is  also  at  this  point  that  the  nature  of  man  as  a 
son  of  God  is  fulfilled,  and  he  becomes  one  with 
God.  It  is  by  suffering  himself  to  be  drawn  into 
the  life  of  Christ,  and  by  sharing  it  in  every 
phase  and  particular,  that  he  becomes  one  with 
Christ  and  one  with  God ;  it  is  thus  that  Father- 
hood and  sonship  are  fully  established.  The  older 
views  did  not  exclude  these  moral  processes,  but 
by  making  the  atonement  an  expiation  or  a  penal 
satisfaction,  they  could  secure  them  only  as  inci- 
dental accompaniments  rendered  out  of  gratitude 
and  sense  of  duty.  But  "  the  moral  view  "  makes 
life  consist  in  them ;  turns  them  into  saving  forces 
that  are  one  with  the  saving  energy  of  Christ  him- 
self. And  it  is  a  reasonable  view  because  it  is 
the  supreme  expression  of  what  is  going  on  in  the 
every-day  processes  of  human  life. 


270  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

The  first  volume,  which  carries  the  main  force 
of  his  contention,  was  written  during  the  civil  war 
for  the  Union.  His  mind  played  back  and  forth 
between  the  tragedy  of  the  Cross  and  that  which 
was  going  on  in  the  battlefields  of  the  country,  and 
he  saw  that  each  was  "  grounded  in  principles  of 
universal  obligation,"  and  therefore  had  saving 
power.  He  identified  the  atonement  with  human 
life  and  history,  instead  of  separating  it  from  them 
as  other  theories  of  the  atonement  had  done.  To 
have  brought  this  truth  out  of  its  manifold  per- 
versions and  made  it  what  it  was  in  the  beginning, 
and  what  it  will  be  so  long  as  it  is  an  actual 
redemption,  is  an  achievement  in  theology  that 
belongs  to  the  first  order  of  intellectual  greatness. 

The  criticism  called  out  by  the  first  volume  was 
severer  than  that  visited  on  any  previous  book. 
Outside  of  New  England,  the  condemnation  was 
total.  From  the  penal  view  to  the  moral  was  too 
long  a  step  for  the  Presbyterian  critics  to  take. 
The  most  notable  and  perhaps  ablest  review  ap- 
peared in  the  "New  Englander  "  (vol.  xxv.  1866, 
p.  228).  After  more  than  fifty  pages  of  close 
yet  always  generous  criticism  of  BuslinelTs  "  over- 
sights and  errors,"  turning  chiefly  on  propitiation, 
the  writer  closes  with  these  remarkable  words : 
"  No  one  can  be  named  who  has  taken  nobler  and 
more  comprehensive  views  of  the  completeness  of 
Christ  for  every  exigency  which  he  recognizes.  No 
one  can  conceive  more  vividly  the  tenderness,  the 
sublimity,  the  subduing  and  constraining  power  of 


"THE  VICARIOUS  SACRIFICE"  271 

his  self-sacrificing  and  vicarious  love.  No  one  cer- 
tainly can  draw  out  by  a  finer  analysis  the  work- 
ings of  that  love  upon  the  soul  of  man  to  purify 
and  humble,  to  elevate  and  ennoble,  to  sanctify 
and  save  his  ruined  nature.  '  It  is  singular,'  re- 
marks an  acute  critic  in  a  private  letter,  'that 
men  who,  like  Bushnell  and  Robertson,  reject  the 
full  import  of  the  death  of  Christ,  should  make 
Christ  a  far  more  living  and  effective  power  than 
the  majority  of  those  who  receive  it.  It  is  singu- 
lar, yet,  it  must  be  confessed,  it  is  true.'  "  Why, 
indeed?  Nothing  could  more  clearly  show  the 
need  of  a  new  conception  of  the  atonement  in 
place  of  that  supposed  to  state  "  the  full  import 
of  the  death  of  Christ "  than  this  naive  confession 
of  its  weakness,  as  held  by  the  majority,  in  com- 
parison with  that  which  is  asserted  to  be  defective. 
It  raises  a  question  as  to  the  relative  value  of  a 
scientifically  correct  theology  as  compared  with  an 
effective  gospel.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
Bushnell  and  Robertson  preached  the  Christ  who 
is  now  accepted  by  the  majority  of  intelligent  be- 
lievers in  Great  Britain  and  America,  and  the 
reason  is  that  stated  by  the  "  acute  critic."  In 
the  practical  world  it  woidd  have  the  force  of  a 
surrender ;  but  the  theological  world  of  that  day 
was  not  practical ;  it  insisted  on  scientific  correct- 
ness, whatever  became  of  the  sinner. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SERMONS 


"  All  light  of  life  for  us  disappears  from  the  life  of  Christ 
unless  that  life  he  to  us  a  life  indeed,  and  not  the  mere  acting  of 
an  assigned  part."  —  John  McLeod  Campbell,  Nature  of  the 
Atonement,  p.  228. 

"  The  gospel  is  nothing  now  any  more  than  it  was  at  the  first 
unless  it  is  reincarnated,  and  kept  incarnate."  —  Bushnell,  Liv- 
ing Subjects,  p.  94. 

"  A  right  mind  has  a  right  polarity,  and  discovers  right  things 
by  feeling  after  them."  —  Ibid.,  p.  173. 

"0  what  worlds-full  of  great  feeling  are  given  to  us,  if  only 
we  can  die  into  the  causes  of  the  worlds!  "  —  Ibid.,  p.  412. 

"  Man  finds  his  paradise  when  he  is  imparadised  in  God."  — 
Bushnell,  Sermons/or  the  New  Life,  p.  41. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SERMONS 

An  able  and  sympathetic  critic  has  said  of 
Bushnell  that  "  the  designation  of  a  theologian 
cannot,  in  any  technical  sense  at  all  events,  be 
applied  to  him."  2  Whatever  truth  there  may  be 
in  this  remark  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  was  pre- 
eminently a  preacher,  and  a  preacher  is  seldom  a 
technical  theologian.  In  Bushnell  the  preacher 
absorbed  the  theologian  and  supplanted  his  meth- 
ods. It  is  as  a  preacher  that  he  first  comes  before 
us,  and  henceforth  whatever  he  says  bears  the  ser- 
monic  stamp.  His  treatises  had  their  origin  in 
the  pulpit,  and  in  this  fact  lies  their  chief  value, 
and  also  something  of  their  weakness.  They  will 
not  always  be  read,  nor  is  it  necessary  that  they 
should  be  in  order  to  perpetuate  his  thought ;  it 
is  found  in  its  truest  and  most  vital  forms  in  the 
sermons.  They  are  a  court  of  appeal  when  the 
treatise  falters  or  goes  amiss  in  its  unnecessary 
logic ;  the  heart  of  the  matter  is  to  be  found  in 
those  utterances  which  came  from  him  as  he  looked 
straight  into  the  lives  of  the  people  and  preached 
the  gospel  to  them  "  first  hand."  He  was  domi- 
nated and  inspired  by  his  profession,  and  he  did  not 
1  Rev.  S,  S.  Drew,  Contemporary  Review,  August,  1879,  p.  823. 


276  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

well  know  how  to  speak  in  any  other  way.  He  was 
not  only  a  great  preacher,  but  he  was  great  at  the 
outset,  and  the  designation  never  was  amiss.  What- 
ever came  from  him  bore  the  unfailing  mark  of  his 
best  qualities,  —  insight,  comprehension,  power  of 
statement.  When  he  preached  his  first  sermon, 
some  one  said :  "  There  is  more  where  that  came 
from."  The  sermon  "  Duty  not  measured  by  our 
own  Ability,"  in  which  he  flanked  each  wing  of 
the  contending  factions  of  the  day,  was  writ- 
ten in  the  first  year  of  his  ministry,  and  it  might 
have  been  written  in  the  last.  His  first  printed 
sermon,  called  out  by  the  mobbing  of  Garrison 
in  Boston  in  1835,  wears  the  statesmanlike  cast 
that  marks  all  of  his  sermons  on  political  topics  ; 
they  are  always  discussions  of  principles  and 
tendencies,  and  invariably  reveal  an  insight  into 
causes. 

His  manner  in  the  pulpit  at  this  period  is  thus 
described  :  — 

"  His  preaching  had  in  those  days  a  fiery  qual- 
ity, an  urgency  and  willful  force,  which,  in  his 
later  style,  is  still  felt  in  the  more  subdued  glow 
of  poetic  imagery.  There  was  a  nervous  insistence 
about  his  person,  and  a  peculiar  emphasizing  swing 
of  his  right  arm  from  the  shoulder,  which  no  one 
who  has  ever  heard  him  is  likely  to  forget.  It 
seemed  as  if,  with  this  gesture,  he  swung  himself 
into  his  subject,  and  woidd  fain  carry  others  along 
with  him.  His  sermons  were  always  written  out 
in  full  and  read  ;  never  extemporized,  never  mem- 


SERMONS  277 

orizecl.  For  the  latter  method  and  its  results  he 
had  no  liking.  For  the  former,  not  sufficient 
confidence,  though  that  came  to  him  later,  when 
driven  to  extempore  work  by  ill-health.  His  early 
manner  betrayed  this  want  of  confidence,  and  was 
at  times  a  little  constrained  and  labored.  The  same 
was  true  of  his  prayers,  which  lacked  ease  and  flow, 
such  as  came  to  him  with  fuller  inspiration.  The 
whole  effect  of  his  services  was,  however,  always 
pointed  and  practical.  Prayers,  hymns,  Scripture 
reading,  text,  sermon,  all  converged  on  the  same 
central  theme,  and  went  to  heighten  the  impres- 
sion of  the  leading  thought." 

A  closer  description  of  his  preaching,  at  an  early 
period,  is  given  by  Charles  Loring  Brace,  whose 
life  illustrated  the  influence  he  describes  :  — 

"  The  writer  holds  it  among  the  especial  bless- 
ings of  his  life  that  his  boyhood  and  youth  were 
passed  under  the  pastorate  of  Dr.  Bushnell.  Those 
were  the  eager  and  powerful  days  of  the  great 
preacher,  when  his  language  had  a  pure  and 
Saxon  ring  which  it  somewhat  lost  in  later  years, 
when  emotions  from  the  depths  of  a  passionate 
nature  bore  him  sometimes  to  the  highest  flights 
of  eloquence,  and  wit  and  sarcasm  flashed  from  his 
talk  and  speeches,  and  he  stood  the  most  inde- 
pendent and  muscular  sermonizer  in  the  American 
pulpit.  He  reached  afterwards  a  higher  plane  of 
spiritual  life,  and  showed  more  balanced  power 
and  more  consideration  for  the  views  of  others, 
and  was  no  doubt  more  humble  minded,  and  yet 


278  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

more  elevated  above  the  world  ;  still  those  early- 
fiery  days  of  liis  left  an  indelible  mark  on  all  the 
youth  who  came  under  his  influence.  We  felt  the 
divine  beauty  of  Truth,  and  how  sweet  and  easy  it 
was  to  sacrifice  all  to  her.  We  were  withdrawn 
from  the  overpowering  control  of  external  formulae 
and  formal  statements,  and  began  to  search  for  the 
realities  as  for  hidden  treasures.  Our  great  teacher 
seemed  to  stand  as  a  prophet,  directing  us  to  things 
unseen  and  eternal ;  and  though  perhaps  he  and 
his  disciples  at  that  time  exaggerated  the  value 
of  the  intellect,  it  was  a  healthful  movement,  and 
always  inspired  with  devout  reverence  and  a  deep 
sense  of  the  personality  of  Christ  as  the  Son  of 
God.  Truth,  independence,  humanity,  under  an 
overpowering  faith  in  God  and  Christ,  were  the 
principles  stamped  then  into  youthful  minds  by  the 
preaching  and  life  of  Dr.  Bushnell.  He  showed 
himself  in  all  his  intercourse,  what  he  was,  a  large 
pattern  of  a  man.  Proud,  at  times  almost  dis- 
dainful ;  full  of  powerful  feelings  ;  simple  ;  witty  ; 
tender  as  a  woman  to  i*eal  misfortune,  but  biting 
in  his  sarcasm  against  pomposity  and  falseness ; 
self-willed,  thoroughly  independent,  a  true  leader 
of  men." 

It  must  not  be  inferred  that  Bushnell  was  what 
is  usually  called  a  popular  preacher.  Men  of  the 
first  order  of  intellect  seldom  win  that  name ;  they 
are  both  unwilling  and  unable  to  bridge  the  chasm 
between  themselves  and  the  throng.  He  always 
had  a  hearing,  but  the  audience  was  determined 


SERMONS  279 

by  the  severest  selection.1  He  drew,  but  only  such 
as  had  ears  to  hear  him.  He  was  impatient  with 
half-way  thinking-,  and  his  genius  was  cast  in  too 
rigid  a  mould  to  admit  of  accommodation  to  the 
populace.  His  brilliancy  and  fervor  flashed  and 
burned  at  too  great  a  distance  to  be  discerned  by 
the  multitude,  and  the  orbit  of  his  thought  was  too 
vast  for  it  to  measure.  He  can  be  fully  appreci- 
ated only  by  those  who  heard  him  preach.  Ser- 
mons and  delivery  fitted  each  other  like  die  and 
image.  The  sincerity  of  the  word  was  matched 
by  the  quiet  confidence  of  his  bearing,  and  the 
poetry  of  his  diction  was  sustained  by  the  music 
of  his  voice,  which  always  fell  into  a  rhythmic 
cadence.  The  flights  of  his  imagination  were  not 
rhetorical  strivings,  but  the  simple  rehearsals  of 
what  he  saw.  He  was  always  more  conscious  of 
the  God-ward  than  the  man-ward  side  of  his  sub- 
ject. His  early  conception  of  God  as  enshrined 
in  Christ  followed  him  to  the  end,  and  it  was 
the  divine  rather  than  the  human  that  entranced 
him.  He  was  eminently  an  interpreter  of  the 
divine  mysteries,  and  he  brought  with  him  the  air 
and  the  bearing  of  the  region  into  which  he  had 
penetrated.  His  effectiveness  was  peculiar.  If 
he  gained  any  hearing  at  all,  he  won  the  consent  of 
the  whole  man,  —  not  agreement  always,  but  intel- 
lectual and  moral  sympathy.     The  sermon  never 

1  Professor  George  Adam  Smith  said — in  colloquio  —  that 
Bushnell  is  the  preacher's  preacher,  as  Spenser  is  the  poet's 
poet,  and  that  his  sermons  are  on  the  shelves  of  every  manse  in 
Scotland. 


280  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

lost  its  power  to  move  and  inspire  such  hearers 
through  lapse  of  years.  He  lodged  so  vast  an 
amount  of  truth  in  heart  and  mind  and  conscience 
that  it  could  not  be  forgotten.  Its  staying  power 
was  due  also  to  the  fact  that,  though  speaking 
from  such  a  height  and  never  descending  an  inch 
to  catch  the  ear,  there  was  an  utter  absence  of  the 
ex  cathedra  and  even  of  the  theologic  tone.  He 
was  the  most  democratic  and  the  most  human  of 
preachers,  and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  loftiest 
and  most  spiritual.  He  spoke  to  men  as  on  equal 
terms  and  in  a  direct  way,  taking  them  into  his 
confidence  and  putting  himself  in  their  place,  feel- 
ing their  needs,  sharing  their  doubts,  and  reason- 
ing the  question  out  as  one  of  them.  He  never 
berates,  and  if  he  exhorts,  it  is  in  the  same  spirit 
of  comradeship  over  the  matter  in  hand.  Still,  he 
is  dominated  by  his  subject  and  its  demands,  fol- 
lowing where  it  goes,  and  if  any  of  his  hearers 
falter,  he  does  not  stop  with  them,  but  leads  the 
rest  on  to  the  final  solution,  cr  up  to  the  last  look 
into  the  mystery. 

One  of  the  most  noticeable  things  about  the  ser- 
mons is  the  relation  between  text  and  title.  When 
they  have  been  announced,  he  has  already  half 
preached  the  sermon.  The  title  is  not  a  happy 
hint  nor  a  catching  phrase,  but  is  the  subject  itself 
in  little.  He  starts  with  a  full  conception  of  Ins 
discourse,  not  working  his  way  into  it,  but  working 
it  out,  having  already  gone  through  it.  Hence  it  is 
not  a  tentative  groping  after  the  truth,  but  the 


SERMONS  281 

truth  itself,  in  brief  but  clear  proportions.  The 
title  of  the  first  discourse  in  "  Sermons  for  the  New- 
Life  "  —  "  Every  Man's  Life  a  Plan  of  God  "  — 
contains  his  whole  thought  on  the  subject.  It 
took  a  great  truth  out  of  dialectic  theology,  where 
it  deadened  action,  and  made  it  a  living  force.  It 
was  not  a  great  sermon  as  compared  with  some 
others,  but  was  great  because  of  its  timeliness  and 
the  shrewdness  of  its  address.  The  text  —  "I 
girded  thee,  though  thou  hast  not  known  me"  — 
matched  the  title,  each  piquing  interest  and  forc- 
ing attention.  Equally  striking  is  the  title  of  the 
third  sermon,  "  Dignity  of  Hmnan  Nature  shown 
from  its  Ruins."  It  is  not  one  of  his  best,  and  is 
somewhat  cumbered  by  dogmatic  views  of  the  Fall, 
which,  however,  he  soon  forgets  in  a  first-hand 
view  of  that  side  of  human  life  where  dignity  is 
not  usually  looked  for.  "  The  Capacity  of  Re- 
ligion extirpated  by  Disuse  ;  "  here  an  old  and 
much  debated  doctrine  is  taken  out  of  its  dogmatic 
setting  and  put  into  life  itself,  where  it  is  clearly 
seen  to  be  an  every-day  fact.  "  Unconscious  In- 
fluence," with  its  allusive  text,  "  Then  went  in 
also  that  other  disciple,"  was  preached  and  first 
published  in  London  in  1846,  where  it  must  have 
caught  the  eye  of  Robertson,  who  in  a  letter 
speaks  of  the  subject  and  text,  but  without  men- 
tion of   the   author.1     It  might  be   named  along 

1  Mr.  Henry  Clay  Trumbull,  in  an  interesting  series  of  papers 
on  Bushnell  in  the  S.  S.  Times  (August,  1899),  refers  to  an  absurd 
controversy  over  the  question  of  plagiarism  by  Robertson.  Bush- 
nell dismissed  the  question  by  saying :  — 


282  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

with  "  Every  Man's  Life  a  Plan  of  God,"  a  pro- 
lific sermon,  having  called  out  innumerable  dis- 
courses on  the  same  subject  and  bearing  fruit 
beyond  measure.  In  the  sermon  on  "  Happiness 
and  Joy,"  he  fixes  the  distinction  between  them, 
and  in  the  sermon  on  "  The  Power  of  an  Endless 
Life  "  turns  the  mind  away  from  duration  to  the 
moral  power  to  live  and  grow  spiritually.  That 
on  "  The  Efficiency  of  the  Passive  Virtues  "  was 
greatly  needed  at  a  thne  when  the  newly  felt  free- 
dom of  the  will  made  life  overtense  with  action. 

In  the  next  volume,  "  Christ  and  his  Salva- 
tion," the  most  notable  discourse  is  that  on  "  The 
Insight  of  Love,"  based  on  the  anointing  of  Jesus. 
The  first  sentence  challenges  attention  :  "It  takes 
a  woman  disciple  after  all  to  do  any  most  beau- 
tiful thing;  in  certain  respects  too,  or  as  far  as 
love  is  wisdom,  any  wisest  thing."  After  an  ex- 
quisitely tender  and  beautiful  unfolding  of  the 
text,  he  passes  to  a  discussion  of  casuistry, — very 
timely  when  literalness  was  the  rule  of  conduct  as 
it  was  of  interpretation,  — and  then  to  the  "  supe- 
rior preceptive  morality  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ," 

"  Robertson  was  too  much  of  a  man  for  that.  He  did  n't  need 
to  do  such  a  thing-.  There  was  no  temptation  to  him  to  appro- 
priate another  man's  ideas  in  that  way." 

"  How,  then,  do  you  account  for  all  this  ?  " 

"  I  suppose  that  Robertson  read  a  report  of  that  sermon  in  the 
newspaper,  one  morning  soon  after  I  had  preached  it,  and  he 
liked  the  plan ;  but  then  it  practically  went  out  of  his  mind. 
Later  its  ideas  came  back  to  him  in  such  a  way  that  he  thought 
he  was  originating  them,  when  he  was  unconsciously  recalling 
them  from  his  memory." 


SERMONS  283 

which  is  "  incarnated  in  his  person,  —  all  beauty, 
truth,  mercy,  greatness,  wise  counsel  of  life,"  and 
supersedes  all  casuistry  so  that  one  who  embraces 
hhn  "  is  able  to  fill  up  a  beautiful  life  and  meet, 
with  a  glorious  consent  of  practice,  all  the  grand- 
est meanings  and  remotest  future  workings  of 
God."  This  sermon  is  a  remarkable  example  of 
refined  discussion  put  to  every-day  use,  —  the 
highest  art  in  the  preacher,  and  almost  the  mea- 
sure of  his  power.  That  on  "  The  Fasting  and 
Temptation  of  Jesus  "  —  the  crucial  subject  in  all 
preaching  —  shows  Bushnell  at  his  best.  Thought, 
feeling,  insight,  sympathy,  —  all  are  at  the  high- 
est. Save  a  few  sentences  touching  on  our  "  fallen 
nature,"  the  treatment  anticipates  the  latest  exe- 
gesis, and  has  no  equal  in  its  passionate  and  clear- 
sighted conception  of  this  experience  in  the  life  of 
Jesus.  It  is  a  fine  illustration  of  nearly  all  his 
sermons,  —  correct  enough  in  exegesis,  not  be- 
cause of  critical  study,  but  by  pure  insight  and 
reproduction  of  events  in  his  imagination.  The 
sermon  on  "  The  Wrath  of  the  Lamb  "  has  in  it 
more  of  technical  theology  than  most  of  his  dis- 
courses ;  still  it  is  marked  by  his  usual  clearness 
of  vision.  The  reader  is  left  in  uncertainty  as 
to  his  meaning  on  certain  points,  but  not  as  to 
the  general  purport.  It  is  sufficiently  clear  until 
he  suffers  his  subject  to  lead  him  into  the  pre- 
valent theology,  against  which  he  deals  heavy 
blows,  while  he  does  not  wholly  make  evident  his 
own  view ;  but  the  sermon  should  live,  and  be  read 


284  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

as  a  moral  tonic,  and  a  reminder  of  the  strenuous- 
ness  of  life  under  the  eternal  laws. 

The  third  volume,  "  Sermons  on  Living  Sub- 
jects," goes  on  in  the  same  fashion,  —  incarnating  a 
theme  in  a  title  and  binding  it  fast  to  a  text.  The 
most  notable  titles  are  "  Feet  and  Wings ;  "  "  The 
Gospel  of  the  Face ;  "  "  Loving  is  but  letting 
God  love  us  ;  "  "  The  Outside  Saints  ;  "  "  Free  to 
Amusements,  and  too  free  to  want  them." 

Valuable  as  the  sermons  of  Bushnell  are  to 
all  who  read  them,  they  are  of  special  value  to 
the  teacher  of  homiletics.  As  he  studies  them, 
searching  for  the  art  that  lends  such  power  to  the 
thought,  he  notes  first  their  structural  quality, — 
built,  not  thrown  together,  nor  gathered  up  here 
and  there.  He  traces  the  intertwined  rhetoric 
and  logic,  each  tempering  the  other,  —  the  reason- 
ing little  except  clear  statement  and  the  rhetoric 
as  convincing  as  the  logic.  He  follows  the  wide 
sweep  of  the  thought  which  yet  never  wanders 
from  the  theme.  He  notes  the  Platonic  use  of 
the  world  as  furnishing  images  of  spiritual  reali- 
ties ;  and  a  kindred  habit  of  condensing  his  mean- 
ing into  apothegms  that  imbed  themselves  in  the 
memory.  He  shows  how  the  preacher  begins  by 
almost  sharing  a  doubt  with  his  hearer  and  leaves 
him  wondering  why  he  ever  doubted ;  how  the- 
ology is  transformed  into  religion  which  becomes 
the  judge  of  theology ;  and  how  while  the  whole 
sermon  is  instinct  with  thought  and  sentiment,  it 
is  practical  down  even  to  homeliest  details ;  —  this 


SERMONS  285 

and  more  the  teacher  will  point  out  to  his  students, 
but  he  has  not  compassed  the  preacher,  nor  can  he 
measure  these  discourses  by  any  analysis.  They 
have  that  which  defies  analysis,  —  genius,  the  crea- 
tive faculty,  the  gift  of  direct  vision.  Something 
in  almost  every  sermon  is  to  be  set  aside,  —  de- 
fective exegesis,  fanciful  interpretation  of  nature, 
provincial  prejudice,  lingering  dogma,  over-empha- 
sis, —  but  after  this  is  done,  there  remains  the  body 
of  the  discourse,  marked  by  that  peculiar  insight 
that  sees  straight  into  the  nature  of  things,  and 
by  that  gift  of  expression  which  can  utter  what 
it  sees  ;  each  gift  reinforcing  the  other. 

It  is  impossible  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  Bush- 
nell's  preaching  without  taking  into  account  that 
of  the  day.  It  was  a  style  of  preaching  in  which 
nature  and  life  were  fairly  driven  off  the  field. 
There  was  no  such  thing  as  a  direct  look.  Every- 
thing was  viewed  through  four  or  five  dominant 
doctrines  that  prescribed  the  thought,  whatever 
might  be  the  subject.  The  Fall  gave  the  key- 
note, and  a  constant  warning  rang  in  the  ears  of 
preacher  and  people ;  fear  of  unsoundness  and 
the  "  system "  determined  the  conclusion.  The 
themes  were  great,  but  the  assumptions  and  the 
method  determined  in  advance  what  was  to  be 
said.  Sometimes  the  argument  wandered  into  by- 
paths of  thought  and  even  sentiment,  and  some- 
times the  preacher  ran  a  wild  chase  in  imaginary 
regions  and  was  deemed  eloquent,  but  for  the 
most  part  he  followed  a  beaten  path  to  a  fixed 


286  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

goal,  marked  out  by  proof-texts  on  one  side,  and 
by  the  system  on  the  other  side.  There  was  no 
full  look  at  life  and  its  conditions,  no  rational  anal- 
ysis of  motives  and  conduct ;  nothing  was  viewed 
in  its  own  light.  The  condition,  in  one  word,  was 
a  lack  of  freedom,  aggravated  by  an  intense  provin- 
cialism. Bushnell  broke  into  this  treadmill  world 
and  reversed  its  method.  He  did  not  ignore  dogma, 
but  he  would  not  allow  it  to  prejudge  his  conclu- 
sion ;  nor  did  he  fail  to  quote  proof -texts,  but  he 
used  them  chiefly  as  helps  in  the  examination  of  his 
subject.  For  that  he  struck  straight  into  the  heart 
of  tilings,  —  life  as  he  himself  and  those  about  him 
were  living  it,  and  nature  as  it  lay  under  his  eye. 

If  the  question  were  raised  as  to  the  theological 
significance  of  his  sermons  as  a  whole,  it  woidd 
be  difficult  to  give  a  clear  answer  ;  but  this  much 
may  be  said,  —  they  reinforce  the  general  purport 
of  his  four  theological  treatises,  and  translate  their 
main  contentions  into  terms  of  every-day  life. 
Treatises  and  sermons  have  as  their  common  and 
chief  result  a  transfer  of  thought  in  New  England 
theology  from  the  atonement,  viewed  under  two  or 
three  theories,  to  the  incarnation ;  that  is,  from  a 
dogmatic  conception  of  Christ's  death  to  a  natural 
conception  of  his  life.  The  change  was  inevitable 
in  the  evolution  of  theology ;  Bushnell  led  the 
way,  and  made  it  clear  and  open.  The  question 
asked  to-day  in  the  earnest  world  is  not,  Why  did 
Christ  die  ?  but,  How  did  he  live  ?  The  incarna- 
tion has  taken  into  itself  the  atonement. 


SERMONS  287 

More  specific  mention  of  this  change  is  made 
elsewhere,  and  is  spoken  of  here  to  illustrate  the 
fact  that  by  bringing  the  atonement  under  the 
terms  of  human  life,  and  by  making  it  a  fulfill- 
ment of  the  laws  of  humanity,  which  are  also  the 
laws  of  God,  he  carried  it  directly  into  the  incar- 
nation, that  is,  the  human  life  of  Christ.  It  does 
not  matter  whether  Bushnell  inclined  to  the  Sabel- 
lian  or  the  Nicene  view,  something  stronger  than 
either  drove  him  along  his  path ;  namely,  the  con- 
viction that  if  God  is  in  Christ,  it  is  in  order  to 
fulfill  himself  under  the  laws  and  conditions  of 
humanity.  This  essential  transition  in  theological 
thought  is  clearly  seen  in  Bushnell' s  sermons.  It 
permeates  them,  and  makes  them  what  they  are. 
His  theological  treatises  will  be  read  less  and  less 
as  time  goes  on.  Theology  is  a  science,  and  science 
is  a  Saturn  that  is  always  devouring  its  own  chil- 
dren ;  but  these  sermons  belong  to  that  other  class 
of  literature  which  has  been  called  "  the  literature 
of  power  "  because  it  deals  with  the  unchangeable 
factors  and  conditions  of  humanity.  No  sermons 
have  a  better  claim  to  be  ranked  in  this  class,  and 
it  may  be  expected  that  they  will  live  on  in  the 
world  of  literature,  along  with  those  of  Bishop 
Butler  and  Mozley  and  Newman,  with  hardly  less 
weight  of  matter,  and  with  even  deeper  insight  into 
the  ways  of  the  spirit,  both  of  God  and  man.  They 
are  universal,  and  yet  they  especially  reflect  the 
New  England  mind  as  a  combination  of  ideality, 
conscience,  and  practicality,  the  last  dominating 


288  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

the  others,  though  in  subtle  and  subordinate  ways. 
They  are  timeless  in  their  truth,  majestic  in  their 
diction,  commanding  in  their  moral  tone,  penetrat- 
ing in  their  spirituality,  and  are  pervaded  by  that 
quality  without  which  a  sermon  is  not  one,  —  the 
divine  uttering  itself  to  the  human.  There  is  no 
striving  and  crying  in  the  streets,  no  heckling  of 
saints  nor  dooming  of  sinners,  no  petty  debates 
over  details  of  conduct,  no  dogmatic  assumption,  no 
logical  insistence,  but  only  the  gentle  and  mighty 
persuasions  of  truth,  coming  as  if  breathed  by  the 
very  spirit  of  God.  He  illustrates  on  every  page 
the  remark  of  his  teacher,  Professor  Gibbs,  that 
"  language  is  the  sanctuary  of  thought."  These 
sermons  are  the  worship  he  paid  in  that  temple 
where  reason  and  devotion  are  one. 

The  writer  supplements  his  own  insufficient  ac- 
count of  the  preaching  of  Bushnell  by  a  graphic 
pen-picture  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  David  N.  Beach. 

"  In  the  academic  year  1870-71,  at  Yale,  the 
College  Pastorate  having  just  become  vacant,  and 
there  being  no  immediate  intention  of  filling  it, 
President  Woolsey,  who  had  a  year  in  advance  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  laying  down  his  office  at 
the  next  Commencement,  provided  for  the  college 
pulpit  an  extraordinary  feast  of  good  things.  It 
was  the  modern  '  Board  of  Preachers '  without 
the  name.  Among  the  eminent  men  whom  he, 
with  consummate  discernment,  brought  hither,none, 
however,  so  shone  as  himself  and  Dr.  Bushnell, 
each  of  whom  preached  on  several  Sundays.     The 


SERMONS  289 

difference  between  no  two  men  could  have  been 
greater,  and  it  afforded  our  student  world  a  reas- 
suring glimpse  of  how  wide-lying  the  kingdom  of 
truth  is,  to  perceive  that  minds  so  diverse  in  apti- 
tude, training,  and  method,  stood,  nevertheless,  in 
the  most  evident  and  heartfelt  sympathy.  The 
compact,  weighty,  simple,  profound  thought  of 
Woolsey,  immensely  in  earnest,  building  toward 
faith  but  more  toward  conduct ;  and  the  vision, 
the  scope,  the  uplift  of  Bushnell,  his  seership,  as 
of  an  Elijah  already  beyond  Jordan  (it  was  almost 
his  last  preaching),  and  talking  with  some  Elisha, 
are  fixed  forever  in  the  minds  and  lives  of  not  a 
few  who  then  sat,  morning  and  afternoon  (for  so 
was  it  in  those  days),  in  that  grim  old  chapel. 

"  Hunting  through  a  file  of  our  college  news- 
paper for  that  year,  I  find  that,  under  the  title, 
*  How  does  he  do  it  ? '  I  essayed  to  answer  the 
unanswerable  about  Bushnell  (Yale  Courant,  Jan- 
uary 18,  1871,  pp.  129,  130).  It  is  a  poor  little 
article,  missing  almost  altogether  the  point,  but 
still  a  token  how  our  seer  had  laid  hold  on  us,  and 
glistering  with  great  Bushnell  phrases.  For  ex- 
ample :  '  Doubt  is  not  occasioned  by  investigation, 
but  by  the  lack  of  it ; '  '  Scorn  is  blind,  for  the 
eyes  it  thinks  it  has  are  only  sockets.'  Nothing 
could  have  been  more  Buslmellian  —  at  least  as, 
like  an  apparition,  he  appeared  before  us  on  those 
Sundays  —  than  those  two  words,  'only  sockets.' 
Pretty  much  all  our  illuminations  seemed  '  only 
sockets '  —  sockets  of  a  skeleton  —  when  he  would 


290  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

have  done  ;  and  we  found  ourselves  looking  far 
away  to  that  light  which  never  was  on  sea  or  land. 
Days  of  fate  —  like  one  of  his  own  he  told  us  of, 
'  in  a  little  bedroom  of  one  of  these  dormitories ' 
—  were  those  to  some  of  us.  But  to  be  more 
specific :  Gaunt  was  he,  gray,  ashen  of  skin,  thin- 
voiced  till  he  got  under  way,  stopping  time  and 
again  to  cough,  no  elocution,  nor  rhetoric  (albeit 
scarce  ever  such  rhetoric,  soberly  conceived)  ;  mak- 
ing us  his  by  no  ad  captandum  themes  or  illus- 
trations, or  metaphors  ;  the  plainest,  most  matter 
of  fact  person  that  ever  stood  there.  His  invo- 
cation, which  we  could  scarcely  hear,  would  still 
us.  The  Scripture  lesson,  plain  speech  (as  if 
uttered  on  yesterday's  half  holiday)  about  some 
valiant  soul,  read  as  only  one  reads  who  dwells  for- 
ever with  realities,  would  change  our  temper  for 
the  entire  day.  Then  the  prayer.  I  can  hear  it 
yet.  Nothing  about  Bushnell  so  holds  me,  though 
I  cannot  recall  a  sentence  of  it.  You  deemed, 
like  Jacob  at  Bethel,  that  God  was  there.  All 
conventions,  too,  were  dissolved  betwixt  Him  and 
you.  Our  seer  must  have  held  Him  with  his  glit- 
tering eye.  Then  the  great  argument  began,  — 
a  shorter  '  pastoral  prayer '  than  we  had  ever 
heard,  that  spake  to  the  Infinite  as  a  man  to  his 
friend  ;  reverent  but  familiar  ;  grateful  but  self- 
respecting  ;  diction  the  simplest,  the  weightiest ; 
hesitating  not  to  assume  for  us  responsibilities,  nor 
to  lay  answering  responsibilities  on  God ;  (you 
divined,  now,  how  it  was  that  Jacob  had  wrestled 


SERMONS  291 

at  Face-of-God,  and  had  successfully  thrown  down 
his  gauntlet  before  Jehovah  ;)  and  done,  as  all 
straight,  pregnant  speech  is  done,  soon,  simply, 
confidently.  The  world  has  changed  when  you 
lift  your  head.  To  have  heard  Bushnell  pray, 
and  to  have  prayed  even  a  very  little  with  him, 
was  already  to  have  entered  the  world  of  spirit. 
Our  Saviour's  unique  prayer  life  was  explicable 
thereafter. 

"  The  sermon  I  remember  best,  better  than  all 
except  that  '  On  the  Mount,'  was  the  one  entitled 
'  The  Dissolving  of  Doubts.'  '  Doubts  are  not 
peculiar  to  Nebuchadnezzar,'  he  begins,  putting 
into  that  monarch's  lips  words  belonging  to  Bel- 
shazzar  (and  it  so  stands  in  the  printed  volume)  ; 
but  if  you  notice  this,  you  do  not  mind,  any  more 
than  you  mind  Shakespeare's  anachronisms.  No, 
they  are  not  peculiar  to  Nebuchadnezzar ;  you  even 
have  had  yours.  Thereupon,  in  the  space  of  some 
three  coarsely  printed  pages,  say  in  five  minutes, 
he  has  given  you  what  an  earlier  metaphysician 
would  have  called  the  '  natural  history '  of  your  own 
mind.  Then,  while  you  sit  breathless,  he  describes 
whither  you  are  come.  '  His  suns  do  not  rise, 
but  climb.'  Next  he  proposes  a  way  out.  It 
appeals  to  you  the  more  because  he  shyly  im- 
plies that  he  has  tried  it  himself.  Here  occurs 
the  parenthesis  about  the  '  little  bedroom.'  '  O 
God,  if  there  be  a  God,'  he  quotes,  and  you  take 
heart.  '  A  dismal  sort  of  prayer,'  he  comments, 
while  you  whisper  Amens,  '  but  the  best  he  can 


292  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

make,  and  better  than  some.'  The  tears  by  this 
time  are  streaming  down  your  face,  but  you  sit 
bolt  upright  on  those  timber  benches,  not  fearing, 
at  least  for  now,  the  face  of  man.  But  it  is  his 
application  that  lifts  you.  '  Never  be  afraid  to 
doubt.'  '  Never  try  to  conquer  doubts  against 
time.'  '  Never  force  yourself  to  believe.'  '  If 
you  try  this  way,  you  must  be  anything  that  it  re- 
quires, a  Jew,  a  Mohammedan,  ready  to  go  to  the 
world's  end,  anything ;  most  probably  you  must 
be  a  Christian.'  All  this  with  a  calm,  a  stillness, 
a  solemnity  of  emphasis,  a  cheerful  confidence  in 
you  and  in  God,  that  by  this  time  have  bathed 
that  sombre  place  as  in  a  soft  and  warm  and 
heavenly  light.  The  president,  who  sits  beside  him 
in  the  high  pulpit,  and  who  will  rather  have  chosen 
the  theme,  '  Sin  not  Self-Reformatory,'  lifts  his 
glasses  to  clear  the  mists  that  are  even  in  his 
piercing  eyes,  and  you  walk  out  into  a  new,  an 
unfearing,  a  believing  life. 

"  This  was  the  peculiarity  of  Bushnell's  preach- 
ing :  it  was  vision,  it  was  pure  insight,  it  changed 
your  point  of  view,  you  were  another  man.  Shortly 
before  the  death  of  Thomas  Hughes,  I  heard  him 
say  in  his  own  library  at  Chester,  before  an  ex- 
quisite portrait  of  Maurice,  his  voice  tremulous 
with  an  emotion  that  almost  bowed  that  strong 
man,  '  Oh,  he  was  the  prophet,  he  was  the  pro- 
phet ! '     You  felt  the  same  about  Bushnell." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES 


"  A  theologian  needs  to  know  the  life  and  spirit  of  his  own 
time.  Theology  has  often  been  viewed  with  prejudice  and  dis- 
trust, because  it  was  supposed  to  be  a  study  of  recluses  or  moral 
specialists,  who  lived  apart  from  the  life  of  their  age,  and  whose 
conclusions  needed  correcting  in  the  light  of  wider  thought  and 
larger  experience.  Such  impressions  are  not  wholly  false,  and  in 
so  far  as  they  are  correct,  theology  cannot  complain  if  it  is  dis- 
trusted. It  may  seem  as  if  a  man  might  successfully  study  the 
themes  of  theology  in  the  solitude  of  a  recluse  ;  but  the  thinking 
of  recluses  tends  to  abstraction,  over-systematizing,  and  neglect 
of  the  practical  aspects  of  truth.  Theology  is  the  science  of 
religion,  and  religion  is  a  life.  Surely  the  science  of  the  richest 
life  is  entitled  to  the  benefit  of  health,  vigor,  and  open  air.  In 
order  to  success  in  theology,  a  man  should  be  sensitive  to  life, 
and  able  to  think  in  sympathy  with  the  living  thought  around 
him.  He  should  be  ready  to  attend  to  the  practical  side  of  his 
theme,  and  capable  of  strong,  practical  views.  All  the  more 
should  he  be  in  toiich  with  life  because  theology  is  not  a  station- 
ary science.  It  has  always  changed  with  the  changing  life  of 
successive  generations,  and  can  never  cease  to  do  so.  Therefore 
a  theologian  must  needs  have  heard  the  voice  of  his  own  genera- 
tion, and  be  able  to  live  in  sympathy  with  the  Christian  life  that 
must  send  its  vigor  into  his  science.  Theology  stagnates  when  it 
is  cut  off  from  present  life  and  thinking  and  has  its  sources  wholly 
in  the  past,  and  the  theologian's  mind  is  the  channel  through 
which  the  fresh  stream  must  flow  in."  —  William  Newton 
Clarke,  D.  D.,  Outline  of  Christian  Theology,  p.  57. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

ESSAYS    AND   ADDRESSES 

Bushnell  published  four  treatises  on  theology : 
"  Christian  Nurture,"  "  God  in  Christ "  (which 
may  be  regarded  as  embracing  "  Christ  in  Theol- 
ogy "),  "  Nature  and  the  Supernatural,"  and  "  The 
Vicarious  Sacrifice."  In  addition  there  are  three 
volumes  of  sermons  and  four  of  addresses  and  es- 
says. The  first  volume  of  the  latter,  —  "  Work  and 
Play,"  —  from  a  purely  literary  point  of  view,  is 
to  be  regarded  as  his  best.  Of  the  first  essay, 
which  gives  the  title,  Dr.  Bartol  said  years  after 
its  delivery :  "  For  originality,  simplicity,  and 
splendor,  either  as  spoken  or  on  the  written  page, 
it  has  scarce,  if  ever,  been  surpassed  in  the  land ;  " 
a  strong  word  when  it  is  remembered  that  the 
best  utterances  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  country 
have  been  made  in  the  form  of  addresses  on  simi- 
lar occasions.  Still,  the  verdict  will  stand.  It  has 
much  in  common  with  two  of  Emerson's  essays,  — 
that  on  "  The  Method  of  Nature  "  and  the  address 
before  the  Divinity  School.  Each  writer  carries 
his  theme  along  the  path  of  nature  into  the  world 
of  the  spirit,  but  the  tread  of  Bushnell  is  firmer 
and  his  world  is  less  elusive.     His  essay  is  sub- 


29G  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

stantially  a  plea  for  the  poet's  conception  of  life, 
in  which  work  that  is  "  activity  for  an  end  "  be- 
comes play  that  is  "  activity  as  an  end."  "  One 
prepares  the  fund  or  resources  of  enjoyment,  the 
other  is  enjoyment  itself."  This  he  regards  as 
the  true  end  and  destiny  of  man.  Taking  the 
leading  forms  of  human  activity  which  as  work 
are  "  counterfeits  of  play,"  he  lifts  them  into  the 
world  of  the  spirit,  where  "  life  is  its  own  end  and 
joy."  There  is  little  originality  in  the  idea ;  it  is 
the  clearness  and  splendor  of  the  treatment  that 
give  to  the  essay  its  significance.  One  does  not 
pass  by  this  essay  as  vague  or  over-fine,  but  rather 
is  held  to  it  by  the  very  force  of  its  concreteness. 
The  conviction  of  the  prophet  blends  with  the 
insight  of  the  poet.  The  play  of  his  imagination 
becomes  a  message  and  a  call,  and  one  reads  the 
closing  sentences  feeling  that  what  is  described 
may  be  actually  realized. 

"  Therefore  I  can  easily  persuade  myself,  that, 
if  the  world  were  free,  —  free,  I  mean,  of  them- 
selves, —  brought  up,  all,  out  of  work  into  the  pure 
inspiration  of  truth  and  charity,  new  forms  of  per- 
sonal and  intellectual  beauty  would  appear,  and 
society  itself  reveal  the  Orphic  movement.  No 
more  will  it  be  imagined  that  poetry  and  rhythm 
are  accidents  or  figments  of  the  race,  one  side  of 
all  ingredient  or  ground  in  nature.  But  we  shall 
know  that  poetry  is  the  real  and  true  state  of  man, 
the  proper  and  last  ideal  of  souls,  the  free  beauty 
they  long  for,  and  the  rhythmic  flow  of  that  uni- 
versal play  in  which  all  life  would  live  "  (p.  5). 


ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  297 

"  The  Growth  of  Law,"  an  address  given  before 
the  Alumni  of  Yale  College  in  1843,  has  special 
interest  as  containing  probably  the  first  correct 
statement  made  in  the  country  of  the  relation  of 
the  Mosaic  law  to  slavery ;  namely,  that  of  "  per- 
missive statutes  "  which  had  no  "  permanent  signi- 
ficance "  and  were  "  liable  to  be  superseded"  under 
the  growth,  or,  as  would  now  be  said,  the  evolution 
of  law.  The  point  is  of  interest  exegetically  and 
politically.  Slavery  was  a  burning  question  at  the 
time,  and  all  opinions  upon  it  ran  to  extremes.  It 
was  defended  as  a  "  divine  institution  "  because  it 
was  recognized  by  the  laws  of  Moses.  This  was 
not  denied,  and  the  abolitionists,  who  put  their 
question  above  every  other,  felt  themselves  driven 
into  a  quasi  or  real  infidelity.  BuslmeU's  assertion 
that  slavery  was  unquestionably  a  part  of  the 
Mosaic  law,  but  was  subject  to  elimination  under 
the  growth  of  moral  sentiments,  had  at  that  time 
no  place  in  public  thought.  The  Northern  pulpits 
were  silent,  and  the  Southern,  having  the  better 
of  the  argument  according  to  the  exegesis  which 
both  accepted,  kept  them  so.  Twenty  years  later 
(1863),  Professor  Gold  win  Smith  published  a  pam- 
phlet in  which  he  took  the  same  ground,  but  not 
until  the  sword  was  taking  vengeance  on  false  exe- 
gesis. Bushnell's  address  is  remarkable  in  many 
ways.  It  anticipated  Maine  and  other  writers  on 
human  society  in  making  it  an  evolution  upon  a 
moral  basis  and  having  a  moral  end.  There  was 
at  the  time  little  or  no  science  to  uphold  him; 


298  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

there  was  as  yet  no  theory  of  the  world,  nor  of 
progress,  except  one  resting  on  the  will  of  God  or 
on  human  effort.  That  he  should  have  struck  out 
one  that  science  afterward  elaborated  from  count- 
less data,  and  put  under  it  the  theological  purpose 
which  science  has  reluctantly  accorded,  is  remarka- 
ble. Emerson  also  had  a  like  vision,  but  his  utter- 
ance of  it  was  a  sibylline  leaf ;  Bushnell  put  his  in 
the  form  of  a  treatise  which  is  still  a  teaching. 

"  The  Founders  Great  in  their  Unconsciousness," 
an  address  before  the  New  England  Society  of 
New  York  (1849),  reveals  how  deeply  he  was 
bedded  in  Puritan  thought,  and  how  thoroughly 
he  apprehended  its  secret.  It  is  regarded  as  one 
of  the  best  of  many  great  addresses  upon  the  Pil- 
grim Fathers :  — 

"  Coming  in  simple  duty,  duty  was  their  power, 
• —  a  divine  fate  in  them,  whose  thrusting  on  to 
greatness  and  triumphant  good  took  away  all  ques- 
tions from  the  feeble  arbitrament  of  their  will,  and 
made  them  even  impassible  to  their  burdens.  And 
they  went  on  building  their  unknown  future,  the 
more  resolutely  because  it  was  unknown.  For, 
though  unknown,  it  was  present  in  its  power,  — 
present,  not  as  in  their  projects  and  wise  theories, 
but  as  a  latent  heat,  concealed  in  their  principles, 
and  works,  and  prayers,  and  secret  love,  to  be 
given  out  and  become  palpable  in  the  world's  cool- 
ing, ages  after  "  (p.  127). 

The  student  of  Bushnell  will  not  pass  by  the 
essay  on  "  Life,  or  the  Lives."     It  is  a  beautiful 


ESSAYS  AND   ADDRESSES  299 

excursion  into  the  region  of  nature  and  its  living 
forms,  touched  here  and  there  by  the  semi-panthe- 
ism that  lends  a  constant  charm  to  his  thought,  and 
running  over  with  hints  and  allusions  that  are  else- 
where wrought  into  his  theological  work,  especially 
in  "  Nature  and  the  Supernatural."  Nature,  when 
properly  studied,  that  is,  in  its  lives  as  well  as  in 
its  forms,  "  becomes  a  circle  of  joyous  life." 

"  Things  above  sense,  the  reverend  mysteries  of 
God  and  religion,  now  throng  about  the  man,  fir- 
ing his  imagination  and  challenging  a  ready  faith. 
Having  passed  within  the  rind  of  matter,  and  by 
its  mechanical  laws,  and  discovered  there  a  more 
potent,  multitudinous,  self-active  world  of  life,  his 
higher  affinities  are  wakened,  drawing  him  away 
to  the  common  Father,  whose  life  is  in  him,  as  in 
them,  and  to  those  meditations  of  the  future  other- 
wise faint  and  dim  in  their  evidence.  Or  if, 
perchance,  he  remembers  that  all  these  creatures 
die  and  are  no  more,  a  feeling  is  by  this  time  gen- 
erated, which  can  no  more  be  chilled,  of  his  own 
self-asserting  immortality.  So  that  when  the 
autumnal  frosts  have  changed  the  world's  green 
look,  and  the  pale  nations  of  the  forest  leaves 
hang  withering,  or  fly  their  stems,  loosened  by 
the  windy  blasts,  he  will  call  them  with  the  poet, 
'pestilence  stricken  multitudes,'  and  the  sympathy 
yielded  to  the  drooping  spirits  of  creation  will  only 
have  softened  his  own,  preparing  that  gentleness 
in  him  which  belongs  both  to  faith  and  to  genius. 
But  the  courage  of  his  immortality  stays  firm,  for 


300  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

well  lie  knows  that  when  the  green  myrmidons  of 
spring  appear  to  gladden  again  the  earth,  it  will 
be  to  him  as  the  opening  of  the  gate  '  Beautiful ' 
over  all  graves,  and  that,  being  now  a  life  again 
among  the  lives  of  May,  singing  with  them  that 
sing,  and  rejoicing  in  the  new-born  joy  of  all,  it 
will  only  be  his  impulse  to  say,  what  before  he  be- 
lieved,—  The  resurrection  and  the  life  "  (p.  312). 

There  is  much  in  this  essay  that  reminds  one  of 
Edwards,  who,  had  he  not  been  the  first  theologian 
of  his  age,  might  have  become  its  greatest  natu- 
ralist. He  seems  to  be  in  entire  accord  with  Bush- 
nell,  who  makes  "  the  whole  universe  of  nature  a 
perfect  analogon  of  the  whole  universe  of  thought 
or  spirit,"  when  he  says  that  "  the  Son  of  God 
created  the  world  for  this  very  end,  to  communi- 
cate Himself  in  an  image  of  His  own  excellency," 
—  not  absolutely,  but  "  a  sort  of  a  shadow  or 
glimpse  of  His  excellencies  to  bodies  which  .  .  . 
are  but  the  shadows  of  beings  and  not  real  be- 
ings." 1 

Many  of  these  essays  reveal  Bushnell  as  a  pub- 
licist of  the  first  order.  No  man  of  his  day  han- 
dled those  questions  of  state  that  involved  the 
moral  sense  of  the  people  with  such  breadth  of 
view  and  such  fidelity,  both  to  the  nation  and  to 
conscience,  as  are  displayed  in  many  a  sermon  and 
address  from  1837  to  the  very  end  of  his  life.  His 
attitude  on  the  slavery  question  was  almost  unique, 

1  See  quotation  in  Allen's  Life  of  Edwards,  p.  355,  a  passage 
of  remarkable  beauty  and  significance. 


ESSAYS  AND   ADDRESSES  301 

and  on  some  points  absolutely  so,  as  we  have  seen, 
standing  as  lie  did  on  nearly  unoccupied  ground 
between  tlie  party  of  compromise  and  that  of  abo- 
lition, true  to  the  Union,  but  true  also  to  anti- 
slavery,  and  pointing  out  the  path  for  each.  His 
conception  of  the  nation  was  very  like  that  of 
Dr.  Mulford,  —  "a  divine  organism,"  an  idea  to 
which  his  theology  easily  lent  itself.  Hence  all 
the  greatness  and  force  of  his  professional  thought, 
along  with  his  Puritan  instincts  and  immeasurable 
earnestness  and  massive  common  sense,  went  into 
discourses  and  addresses  which,  more  than  any 
other  utterances  of  the  day,  interpreted  and  out- 
lined the  providential  history  of  the  nation  for  a 
period  of  thirty  years. 

We  cannot  illustrate  by  quotation,  and  only 
name  such  papers  as  "  The  True  Wealth  and 
Weal  of  Nations,"  «  The  Growth  of  Law,"  »  The 
Founders  Great  in  their  Unconsciousness,"  "  His- 
torical Estimate  of  Connecticut,"  "  The  Doctrine 
of  Loyalty,"  "The  Day  of  Roads,"  "City  Plans," 
"  Common  Schools,"  "  Popular  Government  by 
Divine  Eight,"  "Our  Obligations  to  the  Dead," 
"Barbarism  the  First  Danger."  The  last-named 
paper  has  hardly  been  equaled  in  the  country  for 
effective  results  because  of  the  impulse  it  gave  to 
home  missions  and  to  the  founding  of  Christian 
colleges  in  the  West,  —  the  two  forces  which  be- 
yond all  others  have  prevented  a  lapse  into  barba- 
rism. "  The  Oregon  Question,"  written  and  pub- 
lished in  London,  maintained  in  the  face  of  heated 


302  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

public  opinion  the  American  claims  as  to  bound- 
ary, on  grounds  that  came  to  be  accepted.  Along 
with  these,  and  of  the  same  general  tenor,  are  the 
following  sermons,  published  only  as  pamphlets ; 
"  A  Discourse  on  the  Slavery  Question  ;  "  "  Amer- 
ican Politics  ;  "  "  Politics  under  the  Law  of  God; " 
Prosperity  our  Duty ;  "  "  The  Northern  Iron,"  a 
war  sermon ;  "  Society  and  Religion,"  preached 
in  and  for  California ;  "A  Sermon  to  the  Busi- 
ness Men  of  Hartford,"  one  of  many  that  served 
to  train  up  a  set  of  men  in  that  city  who  have 
greatly  contributed  to  its  prosperity ;  and  "  Re- 
verses Needed,"  a  sermon  telling  them  how  to 
endure  financial  disaster.  Two  of  these  papers  — 
"  Historical  Estimate  of  Connecticut,"  and  "  Our 
Obligations  to  the  Dead,"  an  oration  in  honor  of 
the  Alumni  of  Yale  College  who  fell  in  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion  —  will  always  be  remembered  and 
quoted,  —  one  as  a  revelation  of  the  common- 
wealth to  itself  in  all  that  is  worthiest  in  its  his- 
tory, and  the  other  for  its  political  wisdom,  early 
gained,  and  its  tribute  to  the  dead  whom  it  en- 
shrines in  tender  and  noble  eulogy,  "  sanctified 
by  an  enduring  record."  It  is  in  striking  accord 
with  Lincoln's  address  at  Gettysburg,  both  being 
keyed  to  the  note  of  sacrifice  rather  than  of 
heroism :  — 

"  No,  no,  ye  living !  It  is  the  ammunition  spent 
that  wins  the  battle,  not  the  ammunition  brought 
off  from  the  field.  These  dead  are  the  spent  am- 
munition of  the  war,  and  theirs,  above  all,  is  the 


ESSAYS   AND   ADDRESSES  303 

victory.  Upon  what,  indeed,  turned  the  question 
of  the  war,  but  on  the  dead  that  could  be  fur- 
nished ;  or,  what  is  in  no  wise  different,  the  life 
that  could  be  contributed  for  that  kind  of  expend- 
iture? These  grim  heroes,  therefore,  dead  and 
dumb,  that  have  strewed  so  many  fields  with  their 
bodies,  —  these  are  the  price  and  purchase-money 
of  our  triumph.  A  great  many  of  us  were  ready 
to  live,  but  these  offered  themselves,  in  a  sense, 
to  die,  and  by  their  cost  the  victory  is  won."  1 

1  Mr.  Henry  Clay  Trumbull,  in  his  papers  on  Bushnell  in 
the  <S.  S.  Times  (August  12,  1S99),  speaks  of  the  occasion  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"  When,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  Yale  College,  his  alma  mater, 
honored  her  many  soldier  sons  by  a  commemorative  celebration, 
Dr.  Bushnell  was  invited  to  deliver  the  oration.  It  seemed  to 
me  that  he  was  never  grander  than  on  that  occasion.  The  armies 
were  not  yet  disbanded,  but  from  many  fields  and  posts  officers 
and  men  came  to  share  in  the  impressive  services  of  that  day. 
Starred  names  which  the  whole  nation  delighted  to  honor  were 
there,  and  officers  of  every  grade  in  the  army  and  the  navy, 
together  with  the  host  of  common  soldiers  of  uncommon  worth, 
and  dignitaries  of  church  and  state,  besides  the  ordinary  college 
assembly,  made  up  an  inspiring  audience. 

"  The  Doctor  was  himself  the  central  figure  of  the  hour,  not 
merely  because  of  his  position,  but  by  his  character  and  mental 
and  moral  power.  He  stood  there  like  an  inspired  prophet  of 
old  to  give  his  message  and  to  bear  his  witness.  He  had,  in  one 
sense,  been  in  more  battles  than  any  veteran  before  him.  His 
face  and  figure  showed  scars  that  came  of  conflicts  with  intellect- 
ual and  spiritual  giants.  And  in  his  countenance  was  the  clear 
light  of  assured  triumph  in  faith.  All  present  looked  up  to  him 
with  admiration  and  reverence.  But  the  temptation  to  speak 
words  of  praise  and  honor  to  the  heroes  before  him  had  no  power 
to  swerve  him  from  his  duty  of  pointing  all  to  the  recognition  of 
'  Our  Obligations  to  the  Dead. '  He  uplifted  himself,  and  he 
■uplifted  his  hearers,  as  he  pointed  away  from  the  noblest  of  the 
living  to  the  nobler  dead  who  had  died  for  them." 


304  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

"  The  Age  of  Homespun "  will  probably  be 
longer  remembered  and  oftener  quoted  than  any 
other  writing  of  Bushnell,  because  it  is  so  true  a 
picture  of  rural  New  England  life  in  the  early 
part  of  the  century.  The  invitation  to  preach  the 
sermon  at  the  Centennial  Celebration  of  Litchfield 
County  (August  14, 1851)  came  to  him  soon  after 
the  publication  of  "  Christ  in  Theology,"  and  he 
gladly  turned  away  from  the  turmoil  it  awoke  to 
the  memories  of  "  days  of  victorious  health,  sound 
digestion,  peaceful  sleep,  and  youthful  spirits." 
The  discourse  is  an  outburst  of  grateful  recollec- 
tion of  his  early  life,  —  pathetic,  humorous,  photo- 
graphic in  its  accuracy,  keen  in  its  analysis,  rever- 
ent and  noble  in  its  tone,  revealing  not  more  the 
period  it  describes  than  the  man  himself.  We 
quote  but  briefly  :  — 

"  There  is  no  affectation  of  seriousness  in  the 
assembly,  no  mannerism  of  worship ;  some  would 
say  too  little  of  the  manner  of  worship.  They 
think  of  nothing,  in  fact,  save  what  meets  their 
intelligence  and  enters  into  them  by  that  method. 
They  appear  like  men  who  have  a  digestion  for 
strong  meat,  and  have  no  conception  that  trifles 
more  delicate  can  be  of  any  account  to  feed  the 
system.  Nothing  is  dull  that  has  the  matter  in 
it,  nothing  long  that  has  not  exhausted  the  mat- 
ter. If  the  minister  speaks  in  his  greatcoat  and 
thick  gloves  or  mittens,  if  the  howling  blasts  of 
winter  drive  in  across  the  assembly  fresh  streams 
of    ventilation    that   move    the    hair    upon    their 


ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  305 

heads,  they  are  none  the  less  content,  if  only  he 
gives  them  good  strong  exercise.  Under  their 
hard,  and,  as  some  would  say,  stolid  faces,  great 
thoughts  are  brewing,  and  these  keep  them  warm. 
Free  will,  fixed  fate,  foreknowledge  absolute, 
trinity,  redemption,  special  grace,  eternity  —  give 
them  anything  high  enough,  and  the  tough  muscle 
of  their  inward  man  will  be  climbing  sturdily  into 
it ;  and  if  they  go  away  having  something  to  think 
of,  they  have  had  a  good  day.  A  perceptible  glow 
will  kindle  in  their  hard  faces,  only  when  some  one 
of  the  chief  apostles,  a  Day,  a  Smith,  or  a  Bel- 
lamy, has  come  to  lead  them  up  some  higher  pin- 
nacle of  thought,  or  pile  upon  their  sturdy  mind 
some  heavier  weight  of  argument  —  fainting  never 
under  any  weight,  even  that  which,  to  the  foreign 
critics  of  the  discourses  preached  by  them  and 
others  of  their  day,  it  seems  impossible  for  any, 
the  most  cultivated  audience  in  the  world,  to  have 
supported.  These  royal  men  of  homespun  —  how 
great  a  thing  to  them  was  religion  !  "  (p.  395.) 

The  essays  on  "  Pulpit  Talent "  and  "  Training 
for  the  Pulpit  Man  ward  "  are  among  the  most 
useful  of  his  writings.  The  first  should  be  often 
read  by  preachers  to  reinstate  them  in  the  requi- 
sites of  their  profession.  Bushnell  was  the  ablest 
preacher  of  his  day,  and  the  first  essay  is  an  un- 
conscious revelation  of  himself.  He  discusses  the 
usual  "  canonical  talents,"  as  he  calls  them,  — 
"  high  scholarship  ;  a  metaphysical  and  theological 
thinking  talent ;  style  or  talent  for  expression  ;  and 


306  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

a  talent  of  manner  and  voice  for  speaking."  Due 
acknowledgment  is  made  of  the  value  of  these  as 
"  cultivatable  talents,"  but  he  regards  them  with 
carefid  discrimination,  having  an  eye  on  higher 
qualities. 

"  It  is  one  of  the  sad  things  about  book  learning 
that  it  so  easily  becomes  a  limitation  upon  soids 
and  a  kind  of  dry  rot  in  their  vigor.  The  recep- 
tive faculty  absorbs  the  generative,  and  the  schol- 
arhood  sucks  up  the  manhood.  I  know  not  how 
to  put  this  matter  of  scholarship  better  than  to 
say  that  it  needs  to  be  universal;  to  be  out  in 
God's  universe ;  that  is,  to  see  and  study  and 
know  everything,  books  and  men  and  the  whole 
work  of  God  from  the  stars  downward ;  to  have 
a  sharp  observation  of  war  and  peace  and  trade ; 
of  animals  and  trees  and  atoms  ;  of  the  weather, 
and  the  evanescent  smells  of  the  creations ;  to  have 
bored  into  society  in  all  its  grades  and  meanings, 
its  manners,  passions,  prejudices,  and  times  ;  so 
that,  as  the  study  goes  on,  the  soul  will  be  getting 
full  of  laws,  images,  analogies,  and  facts,  and 
drawing  out  all  subtlest  threads  of  import  to  be 
its  interpreters  when  the  preaching  work  requires. 
Of  what  use  is  it  to  know  the  German  when  we 
do  not  know  the  human  ?  Or  to  know  the  Hebrew 
points  when  we  do  not  know  at  all  the  points 
of  our  wonderfully  punctuated  humanity  ?  A 
preacher  wants  a  full  storehouse  of  such  learning, 
and  then  he  wants  the  contents  all  shut  in,  so  that 
they  can  never  one  of  them  get  out,  only  as  they 


ESSAYS   AND  ADDRESSES  307 

leap  out,  unbidden,  to  help  him  and  be  a  language 
for  him.  .  .  . 

"  There  cannot  be  much  preaching  worthy  of 
the  name  where  there  is  no  thinking.  Preaching 
is  nothing  but  the  bursting  out  of  light,  which  has 
first  burst  in  or  up  from  where  God  is,  among  the 
soul's  foundations.  And  to  this  end,  great  and 
heavy  discipline  is  wanted,  that  the  soul  may  be 
drilled  into  orderly  right  working.  .  .  . 

"  An  immense  overdoing  in  the  way  of  analysis 
often  kills  a  sermon.  Death  itself  is  a  great 
analyzer,  and  nothing  ever  comes  out  of  the 
analyzing  process  fully  alive.  .  .  . 

"  True  preaching  struggles  right  away  from 
formula,  back  into  fact,  and  life,  and  the  revela- 
tion of  God  and  heaven.  I  make  no  objection  to 
formulas ;  they  are  good  enough  in  their  place, 
and  a  certain  instinct  of  our  nature  is  comforted 
in  having  some  articidations  of  results  thought  out 
to  which  our  minds  may  refer.  Formulas  are  the 
jerked  meat  of  salvation,  —  if  not  always  the  strong 
meat,  as  many  try  to  think,  —  dry  and  portable 
and  good  to  keep,  and  when  duly  seethed  and  soft- 
ened, and  served  with  needful  condiments,  just 
possible  to  be  eaten  ;  but  for  the  matter  of  living, 
we  really  want  something  fresher  and  more  nutri- 
tious. On  the  whole,  the  kind  of  thinking  talent 
wanted  for  a  great  preacher  is  that  which  pier- 
cingly loves  ;  that  which  looks  into  things  and 
through  them,  ploughing  up  pearls  and  ores,  and 
now  and  then  a  diamond.     It  will  not  seem  to  go 


308  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

on  metaphysically  or  scientifically,  but  with  a  cer- 
tain round-about  sense  and  vigor.  And  the  people 
will  be  gathered  to  it  because  there  is  a  gospel  fire 
burning  in  it  that  warms  them  to  a  glow.  This  is 
power.  .  .  . 

"  A  great  many  preachers  die  of  style,  that  is, 
of  trying  to  soar ;  when,  if  they  would  only  con- 
sent to  go  afoot  as  their  ideas  do,  they  might  suc- 
ceed and  live.  .  .  . 

"  Only  good  and  great  matter  makes  a  good  and 
great  style  "  (pp.  187-189). 

He  is  doubtful  as  to  the  value  of  training  in 
manner  and  voice.  "  It  is  mostly  a  natural  talent, 
though  it  can  be  modulated  and  chastened  by 
criticism."  "  I  have  never  known  a  great  college 
declaimer  that  became  a  great  preacher."  "  The 
artistic  air  kills  everything."  "  The  greatest  fault 
possible  to  a  speaker  is  to  be  absolutely  faultless." 

Dismissing  the  canonical  talents,  he  names  others 
which  he  considers  as  more  essential.  First,  "  the 
talent  for  growth."  He  describes  those  who  have 
it,  as  follows  :  — 

"  Increment  is  their  destiny.  Their  force  makes 
force.  What  they  gather  seems  to  enlarge  their 
very  brain.  .  .  .  By  and  by  it  begins  to  be  seen 
that  they  move.  Somebody  finally  speaks  of  them. 
Their  sentiments  are  growing  bigger,  their  opinions 
are  getting  weight,  ideas  are  breaking  in  and  im- 
aginations breaking  out,  and  the  internal  style  of 
their  souls,  thus  lifted,  lifts  the  style  of  their  ex- 
pression.   They  at  length  get  the  sense  of  position, 


ESSAYS   AND   ADDRESSES  309 

and  then  a  certain  majesty  of  consciousness  adds 
weight  to  their  speech.  And  finally  the  wonder- 
ful thing  about  them  is  that  they  keep  on  growing, 
confounding  all  expectation,  getting  all  the  while 
more  breadth  and  richness,  and  covering  in  their 
life,  even  to  its  close,  with  a  certain  evergreen  fresh- 
ness that  is  admirable  and  beautiful  to  behold  " 
(p.  194). 

"  Passing  to  the  class  of  talents  that  are  most 
preeminently  preaching  talents,  I  name  first  the 
talent  of  a  great  conscience  or  a  firmly  accentuated 
moral  nature.  .  .  .  No  great  and  high  authority 
is  possible  in  a  movement  on  souls,  without  a  great 
conscience.  Principles  analytically  distinguished 
and  reasoned  by  the  understanding  have  a  tame, 
weak  accent  as  respects  authority,  but  when  they 
are  issued  from  the  conscience,  rung  as  peals  by 
the  conscience,  they  get  an  attribute  of  thunder. 
Like  thunder,  too,  they  are  asserted  by  their  own 
mere  utterance  and  the  unquestionable  authority 
of  their  voice"  (p.  201). 

The  analysis  of  imperfect  consciences  is  most 
keen  and  searching.  "  Some  consciences  seem  to 
be  wholly  insignificant  and  weak  till  they  are 
tempest-strung,  or  get  mounted  somehow  on  the 
back  of  passion.  There  is  no  human  creature  so 
thoroughly  wicked  and  diabolical  as  he  that  is  pro- 
testing in  the  heat  of  his  will,  or  the  fume  of  his 
grudges  and  resentments,  how  conscientious  he  is. 
Another  kind  of  conscience  appears  to  be  felt 
mainly  as  an  irritant.     It  pricks  and  nettles,  but 


310  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

does  not  very  much  sway  even  the  subject  himself. 
It  is  sharp,  pungent,  thin,  but  never  kingly. 
There  is  also  a  slimy,  would-be  tender,  slow-mov- 
ing conscience,  that  draws  itself  in  vicious  softness 
like  a  snail  upon  a  limb,  till,  presto,  the  conscien- 
tious slime  hardens  into  a  shell,  and  what  seemed 
an  almost  skinless  sensibility  becomes  a  horny 
casement  of  impracticability,  obstinacy,  or  bigot 
stiffness.  Now  these  and  all  such  partial,  crotch- 
ety, and  misbegotten  consciences  are  insufficient  to 
make  a  powerful  preacher.  Their  diameter  is  not 
big  enough  to  carry  any  great  projectile  of  convic- 
tion. No  matter  what,  or  how  great,  his  promise 
on  the  score  of  his  other  gifts  and  acquirements, 
he  cannot  be  impressive  because  there  is  no  ring 
of  authority  in  his  moral  nature  "  (p.  201). 

"  A  large,  immediate,  and  free  beholding  is 
necessary  to  make  a  powerful  preacher."  .  .  . 
"  Faith  has  a  way  of  proving  premises  themselves, 
namely,  by  seeing  them.  In  virtue  of  the  faith- 
talent,  we  have  the  possibility  also  of  divine  inspi- 
rations, and  of  all  those  exaltations  —  visibly 
divine  movements  in  the  soul  —  that  endow  and 
are  needed  to  endow  the  preacher  "  (p.  203). 

"  There  is  nothing  more  evident  than  that  one 
may  have  all  the  four  canonical  talents  in  great 
promise,  and  yet  have  almost  no  faith-talent  with 
them,  no  inspiration,  no  capacity  of  any.  The 
nature  they  have  is  either  a  nature  too  impetuous, 
or  too  close,  to  let  any  divine  movement  have  play 
in  it      The  preacher  must  be  a  very  different  kind 


ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  311 

of  man :  one  who  can  be  unified  with  God  by  his 
faith,  and  go  into  preaching  not  as  a  calling  but  a 
call ;  one  who  can  do  more  than  get  up  notions 
about  God,  and  preach  the  notions  ;  one  who  knows 
God  as  he  knows  his  friend,  and  by  closeness  of 
insight  gets  a  Christly  meaning  in  his  look,  a  di- 
vine quality  in  his  voice,  action  visibly  swayed  by 
unknown  impulse,  imaginations  that  are  apocalyp- 
tic, beauty  of  feeling  not  earthly,  authority  flavored 
by  heavenly  sanctity  and  sweetness,  argument  that 
breaks  out  in  flame,  asserting  new  premises  and 
fertilizing  old  ones  more  by  what  is  put  into  them 
than  by  what  is  deduced  from  them.  Such  a  man 
can  be  God's  prophet ;  that  is  to  say,  he  can  preach  " 
(p.  205). 

He  rates  as  indispensable  what  he  calls  "a 
man's  atmosphere"  —  an  undefinable  quantity 
which  may  be  hinted  at  as  "  the  moral  aroma  of 
character  ;  "  or  "  magnetic  sphere  of  the  person  ;  " 
or  "  the  voice,  color,  feature,  manner,  and  general 
soul-play  represented  in  them." 

There  are  good  atmospheres  that  are  yet  "  dis- 
qualifications in  the  preacher." 

"  One  carries  about  with  him,  for  example,  the 
inevitable  literary  atmosphere,  and  a  shower-bath 
on  his  audience  could  not  more  effectually  kill  the 
sermon.  Another  preaches  out  of  a  scientific  at- 
mosphere, which  is  scarcely  better ;  another  out  of 
a  philosophic,  which  is  even  worse,  for  no  human 
soul  is  going  either  to  be  pierced  for  sin,  or  to  re- 
pent of  it,  scientifically ;  and  as  little  is  any  one 


312  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

going  to  believe,  or  hope,  or  walk  with  God,  or 
be  a  little  child,  philosophically.  No  man  ever 
becomes  a  really  great  preacher  who  has  not  the 
talent  of  a  right  and  genuinely  Christian  atmos- 
phere "  (p.  209). 

After  naming  the  "  administrative,  organizing 
capacity,"  of  which  he  says  "it  takes  more  high 
manhood,  more  wisdom,  firmness,  character,  and 
right-seeing  ability  to  administer  well  in  the  cause 
than  it  does  to  preach  well,"  the  essay  closes 
with  words  of  friendly  advice,  first  warning  the 
preacher  against  conceit  as  "  the  bane  of  faith ; " 
yet  "  not  to  think  so  meanly  of  yourself  that  you 
cannot  be  yourself."  "  Remember  also,  as  a  law 
of  the  talents,  that  any  one  of  them  waked  into 
power  wakes  the  talent  next  to  it,  and  that  in  like 
manner  another,  till  finally  the  whole  circle  wakes 
into  power."  "  What  we  want  is  not  to  go  hunting 
our  poor  nature  through,  that  we  may  find  what 
is  slumbering  in  us  waiting  to  be  somehow  waked. 
But  the  grand  first  thing,  or  chief  concern  for  us 
is  to  be  simply  Christed  all  through,  filled  in  every 
faculty  and  member  with  his  Christly  manifesta- 
tion, in  that  manner  to  be  so  interwoven  with  him 
as  to  cross  fibre  and  feel  throughout  the  quicken- 
ing contact  of  his  personality  ;  and  then  everything 
in  us,  no  matter  what,  will  be  made  the  most  of, 
because  the  corresponding  Christly  talent  will  be 
playing  divinely  with  it,  and  charging  it  with 
power  from  himself  "  (p.  219). 

The   second    paper,  "  Training    for  the  Pulpit 


ESSAYS  AND   ADDRESSES  313 

Manward,"  is  even  more  searching.  It  is  through- 
out a  steady  protest  against  getting  "  stalled  in 
abstract  theology,"  and  a  plea,  repeated  in  every 
page,  that  the  preacher  should  "  keep  in  the  living 
world  and  make  a  part  of  it," — a  leading  char- 
acteristic of  Bushnell  himself,  both  as  a  preacher 
and  a  theologian.  We  have  room  for  but  one 
quotation,  which  we  introduce  because,  guided  by 
the  underlying  thought  of  his  subject,  he  treats  sin 
in  a  first-hand  way,  which  is  not  always  the  case 
elsewhere  in  his  writings.  We  do  not  hesitate  to 
class  it  among  the  most  powerful  utterances  ou 
the  subject. 

"  I  suggest  again,  as  a  matter  closely  related,  the 
very  large,  really  sublime  interest  we  should  get  in 
persons,  or  souls,  in  distinction  from  subjects,  by 
putting  the  mind  down  carefully  on  the  study  or 
due  exploration  of  sin.  I  do  not  mean  by  this 
any  theologic  exploration,  such  as  we  have  reported 
in  our  systems,  no  questioning  about  the  origin,  or 
propagation,  or  totality,  or  disability,  or  immedic- 
able guilt  of  sin,  but  a  going  into  and  through  it 
as  it  is,  and  the  strange  wild  work  it  makes  in  the 
intestine  struggles  and  wars  of  the  mind.  For 
it  is  a  fact,  I  fear,  that  we  sometimes  very  nearly 
kill  our  natural  interest  in  persons,  by  just  bolting 
them  down  theologically  into  what  we  call  death 
and  there  making  an  end.  We  clap  an  extin- 
guisher on  them,  in  this  manner,  and  they  drop 
out  of  interest,  just  where  they  become  most  inter- 
esting, —  where  meaning,  and  size,  and  force,  and 


314  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

depth  of  sorrow,  and  amount  of  life,  and  every- 
thing fit  to  engage  our  concern  is  most  impressively 
revealed.  Say  no  more  of  the  dignity  of  human 
nature ;  here  is  something  far  beyond  all  that,  —  a 
wild,  strange  flame  raging  inwardly  in  that  nature, 
that,  for  combinations  of  great  feeling,  and  war, 
and  woe,  is  surpassed  by  no  tragedy  or  epic,  nor 
by  all  tragedies  and  epics  together.  Here  in  the 
soul's  secret  chambers  are  Fausts  more  subtle  than 
Faust,  Hamlets  more  mysterious  than  Hamlet, 
Lears  more  distracted  and  desolate  than  Lear; 
wills  that  do  what  they  allow  not,  and  what  they 
would  not  do  ;  wars  in  the  members  ;  bodies  of 
death  to  be  carried,  as  in  Paid ;  wild  horses  of  the 
mind,  governed  by  no  rein,  as  in  Plato  ;  subtleties 
of  cunning,  plausibilities  of  seeming  virtues,  mem- 
ories writ  in  letters  of  fire,  great  thoughts  heaving 
under  the  brimstone  marl  of  revenges,  pains  of 
wrong  and  of  sympathy  with  suffering  wrong,  as- 
pirations that  have  lost  courage,  hates,  loves,  beau- 
tiful dreams,  and  tears  :  —  all  these  acting  at  cross- 
purposes  and  representing,  as  it  were  to  sight,  the 
broken  order  of  the  mind.  Getting  into  the  secret 
working,  and  seeing  how  the  drama  goes  on  in  so 
many  mystic  parts,  the  wondrous  life-scene  — 
shall  we  call  it  poetry  ?  —  takes  on  a  look  at  once 
brilliant  and  pitiful  and  appalling,  and  what  we 
call  the  person  becomes  a  world  of  boundless  capa- 
cities shaken  out  of  their  law,  energies  in  full  con- 
flict and  without  government,  passions  that  are 
wild,  sorrows  that  are  weak.    By  such  explorations, 


ESSAYS   AND   ADDRESSES  315 

never  to  be  exhausted  by  discovery,  our  sense  of 
person  or  mind  or  soul  is  widely  opened  and  may 
always  be  kept  fresh"  (p.  232). 

These  quotations  on  preaching,  so  largely  dis- 
proportionate to  the  size  of  our  volume,  are  design- 
edly made  because  they  so  clearly  and  aptly  reveal 
Bushnell  as  a  theologian,  as  a  preacher,  and  as 
a  man.  It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  omit 
these  two  essays  from  the  instruction  of  candidates 
for  the  ministry.  The  substance  of  them  may  be 
wrought  into  other  men's  work,  but  the  piercing 
insight,  the  remorseless  probing  into  motives,  the 
massive  common  sense,  the  play  of  wit  and  wisdom, 
the  balance  of  truth,  the  spiritual  power,  the  abso- 
lute transcrij3t  of  the  inmost  meaning  of  the  gos- 
pel, —  all  set  in  noblest  forms  and  glowing  with 
passion,  —  nowhere  else  are  these  things  to  be 
found  as  in  these  addresses. 

In  the  essay  on  "Religious  Music"  we  find  him, 
as  everywhere  else,  testing  his  principle  that  the 
universe  of  nature  is  a  perfect  analogon  of  the 
universe  of  thought  or  spirit.  Bushnell,  as  his  bio- 
grapher remarks,  was  "  musically  organized."  It 
might  be  more  closely  said  that  he  was  rhythmic- 
ally organized.  The  most  marked  quality  in  his 
style  is  its  rhythm,  —  a  feature  now  subordinated 
to  the  modern  demand  that  every  sentence  shall 
have  the  edge  and  ring  of  steel.  We  insist  on 
scientific  accuracy,  and  leave  out  the  music  which 
is  also  a  part  of  science ;  but  when  we  have  gone 
further  into  nature,  we  shall  return  to  what   is 


316  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

deepest  in  it,  and  suffer  the  rhythmic  beat  to  come 
back  into  our  sentences.  Bushnell's  style  was  as 
inevitable  as  his  ear,  and  was  the  product '  of  it. 
He  both  heard  and  thought  rhythmically,  and  the 
thought  led  him  into  the  inmost  chamber  of  nature, 
where  he  discovered  its  profoundest  secret.  This 
sense  was  so  strong  that  many  passages,  like  the 
closing  pages  of  "  Life,  and  the  Lives,"  and  an- 
other that  will  be  quoted  at  the  end  of  this  chapter, 
are  distinctly  poems  both  in  sentiment  and  rhyth- 
mic swing.     He  himself  recognized  this  quality :  — 

"  This  divine  principle  of  music  breaks  into  the 
style  of  every  good  writer,  every  powerful  speaker, 
and  beats  in  rhythmic  life  in  his  periods.  Even  if 
he  is  rough  and  fierce,  as  he  may  be  and  as  true 
genius  often  is,  it  will  yet  be  the  roughness  of  an 
inspired  movement ;  a  wizard  storm  of  sounds  that 
rage  in  melody,  not  the  dead  jolting  of  cadences 
that  have  no  inner  life  back  of  the  wind-force  that 
utters  them.  The  talent  of  music  is  the  possibility, 
in  fact,  of  rhythm,  of  inspiration,  and  of  all  poetic 
life  "  (p.  464). 

Musicians  are  the  least  able  of  all  artists  to 
explain  their  art ;  they  either  lapse  into  sentimen- 
tality, or  stop  on  technique,  or,  rightly  enough, 
are  content  with  feeling  it.  Bushnell  in  this  essay, 
though  he  does  not  explain  music,  traces  it  to  its 
source  in  nature,  where  he  finds  in  all  objects  a 
capacity  for  sound  that  corresponds  to  our  feelings 
as  religious  beings  ;  —  "a  wonderful  fact  that  God 
has  hidden  powers  of  music  in  things  without  life ; 


ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  317 

and  that  when  they  are  used  in  right  distinctions, 
or  properties  of  sound,  they  discourse  what  we 
know,  —  what  meets,  interprets,  and  works  our  feel- 
ing, as  living  and  spiritual  creatures."  From 
this  starting-point  he  goes  on  to  discuss  the  fact 
"  that  a  grand,  harmonic,  soul-interpreting  law  of 
music  pervades  all  the  objects  of  the  material  crea- 
tion, and  that  things  without  life,  all  metals  and 
woods  and  valleys  and  mountains  and  waters,  are 
tempered  with  distinctions  of  sound,  and  toned  to 
be  a  language  to  the  feeling  of  the  heart." 

The  following  passage  is  a  memory  of  his  experi- 
ence on  the  Great  Scheidegg  above  Grindelwald : 

"  If  it  seems  incredible  that  the  soul  of  music  is 
in  the  heart  of  all  created  being,  then  the  laws  of 
harmony  themselves  shall  answer,  one  string  vibrat- 
ing to  another,  when  it  is  not  struck  itself,  and 
uttering  its  voice  of  concord  simply  because  the 
concord  is  in  it  and  it  feels  the  pulses  on  the  air  to 
which  it  cannot  be  silent.  Nay,  the  solid  moun- 
tains and  their  giant  masses  of  rock  shall  answer ; 
catching,  as  they  will,  the  bray  of  horns,  or  the 
stunning  blast  of  cannon,  rolling  it  across  from 
one  top  to  another  in  reverberating  pulses,  till  it 
falls  into  bars  of  musical  rhythm  and  chimes  and 
cadences  of  silver  melody.  I  have  heard  some  fine 
music,  as  men  are  wont  to  speak,  —  the  play  of  or- 
chestras, the  anthems  of  choirs,  the  voices  of  song 
that  moved  admiring  nations.  But  in  the  lofty 
passes  of  the  Alps,  I  heard  a  music  overhead  from 
God's  cloudy  orchestra,  the  giant  peaks  of  rock  and 


318  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

ice,  curtained  in  by  the  driving  mist  and  only  dimly 
visible  athwart  the  sky  through  its  folds,  such  as 
mocks  all  sounds  our  lower  worlds  of  art  can  ever 
hope  to  raise.  I  stood  (excuse  the  simplicity)  call- 
ing to  them,  in  the  loudest  shouts  I  coidd  raise,  even 
till  my  power  was  spent,  and  listening  in  compul- 
sory trance  to  their  reply.  I  heard  them  roll  it  up 
through  their  cloudy  worlds  of  snow,  sifting  out  the 
harsh  qualities  that  were  tearing  in  it  as  demon 
screams  of  sin,  holding  on  upon  it  as  if  it  were  a 
hymn  they  were  fining  to  the  ear  of  the  great  Crea- 
tor, and  sending  it  round  and  round  in  long  redupli- 
cations of  sweetness,  minute  after  minute,  till  finally 
receding  and  rising,  it  trembled,  as  it  were,  among 
the  quick  gratulations  of  angels,  and  fell  into  the  si- 
lence of  the  pure  empyrean.  I  had  never  any  con- 
ception before  of  what  is  meant  by  quality  in  sound. 
There  was  more  power  upon  the  soul  in  one  of  those 
simple  notes  than  I  ever  expect  to  feel  from  any- 
thing called  music  below,  or  ever  can  feel  till  I  hear 
them  again  in  the  choirs  of  the  angelic  world.  I 
had  never  such  a  sense  of  purity,  or  of  what  a  sim- 
ple sound  may  tell  of  purity,  by  its  own  pure  qual- 
ity ;  and  I  could  not  but  say,  O  my  God,  teach  me 
this  !  Be  this  in  me  forever  !  And  I  can  truly 
affirm  that  the  experience  of  that  hour  has  con- 
sciously made  me  better  able  to  think  of  God  ever 
since  —  better  able  to  worship.  All  other  sounds 
are  gone  ;  the  sounds  of  yesterday,  heard  in  the 
silence  of  enchanted  multitudes,  are  gone  ;  but 
that  is  with  me  still,  and  I  hope  will  never  cease 


ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  319 

to  ring  in  my  spirit,  till  I  go  down  to  the  slumber 
of  silence  itself"  (p.  455). 

In  1869,  stirred  by  John  Stuart  Mill's  recent 
advocacy  of  woman's  suffrage,  and  by  the  general 
agitation  of  the  subject,  he  prepared  a  small  vol- 
ume, which  he  named  with  his  usual  skill,  "  The 
Reform  against  Nature."  Its  aim  is  perhaps  best 
indicated  by  a  homely  illustration  (p.  101)  :  "If 
the  log  may  be  split  by  the  wooden  wedge,  most 
of  us  would  like  to  be  sure  that  the  wedge  is  not 
going  to  be  split  by  the  log." 

The  dedication  is  so  neat  and  characteristic  a 
bit  of  writing  that  it  must  be  quoted :  — 

"  For  once  I  will  dare  to  break  open  one  of  the 
customary  seals  of  silence,  by  inscribing  this  little 
book  to  the  woman  I  know  best  and  most  thor- 
oughly ;  having  been  overlapped,  as  it  were,  and 
curtained  in  the  same  consciousness  for  the  last 
thirty-six  years.  If  she  is  offended  that  I  do  it 
without  her  consent,  I  hope  she  may  get  over  the 
offense  shortly,  as  she  has  a  great  many  others 
that  were  worse.  She  has  been  with  me  in  many 
weaknesses  and  some  storms,  giving  strength  alike 
in  both ;  sharp  enough  to  see  my  faults,  faithful 
enough  to  expose  them,  and  considerate  enough  to 
do  it  wisely  :  shrinking  never  from  loss,  or  blame, 
or  shame  to  be  encountered  in  anything  right  to  be 
done  ;  adding  great  and  high  instigations,  —  insti- 
gations always  to  good,  and  never  to  evil  mistaken 
for  good  ;  forecasting  always  things  bravest  and 
best  to  be  done,  and  supplying  inspirations  enough 


320  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

to  have  made  a  hero,  if  they  had  not  lacked  the 
timber.  If  I  have  done  anything  well,  she  has 
been  the  more  really  in  it  that  she  did  not  know 
it,  and  the  more  willingly  also  that  having  her  part 
in  it  known  has  not  occurred  to  her  ;  compelling  me 
thus  to  honor  not  less,  but  more,  the  covert  glory 
of  the  womanly  nature  ;  even  as  I  obtain  a  dis- 
tincter  and  more  wondering  apprehension  of  the 
divine  meanings,  and  moistenings,  and  countless, 
unbought  ministries  it  contributes  to  this  other- 
wise very  dry  world." 

"  Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things "  is  a  book  of 
substantially  the  same  character  as  "  Nature  and 
the  Supernatural, "  having  the  same  purpose  to 
bring  the  "dark  things"  of  the  universe  and  of 
human  experience  into  "  the  one  system  of  God." 
The  title  itself  challenged  him  to  the  keenest  use 
of  his  faculties.  It  was  a  passion  with  him  to 
solve  problems.  Like  Edwards,  he  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  discuss  "  God's  final  ends  in  creation " 
when  his  theme  led  him  in  that  direction.  He 
liked  to  play  with  questions,  to  toss  them  in  the 
air  and  see  in  what  shape  they  would  come  back 
to  him.  This  book  affords  an  opportunity  to 
correct  a  general  impression  that  Bushnell  was 
not  a  wide  reader,  and  even  avoided  books.  The 
impression  grows  out  of  the  fact  that  he  seldom 
quotes,  and  also  from  the  undeniable  fact  that  he 
was  not  a  wide  and  thorough  reader  in  what  is 
termed  theology.  But  before  deciding  whether 
that  was  a  professional  crime  in  him,  it  would  be 


ESSAYS   AND   ADDRESSES  321 

well  to  find  out  what  were  the  professional  limits 
for  such  a  theologian  as  Bushnell.  It  is  true  that 
he  did  not  read  books  of  systematic  theology,  nor 
did  he  care  much  for  those  of  the  Bridgewater 
Treatise  stamp ;  and  for  metaphysics  he  cared  no- 
thing ;  but  he  read  history  freely,  and  in  the  great 
masters  of  literature,  —  "  the  literature  of  power," 
as  De  Quincey  called  it,  —  from  Plato  and  Shake- 
speare down,  he  was  a  careful  and  constant  reader. 
Such  reading,  indeed,  did  not  fit  him  to  enter  as  an 
equal  into  the  theological  arena  of  his  day,  where 
the  weapons  were  chosen  from  another  arsenal,  and 
the  conflicts  were  over  definition  and  precedent ; 
but  the  time  was  near  at  hand  when  theology,  as 
Dr.  Arnold  was  already  urging,  must  draw  from  all 
fields  of  study  and  thought,  and  must  find  its 
questions  debated  in  the  literature  of  humanity 
rather  than  in  bodies  of  divinity.  There  Bushnell 
went  as  by  instinct,  and  was  at  home.  That  he 
was  unread  in  technical  theology  in  no  way  hin- 
dered him  from  doing  the  thing  that  needed  to  be 
done.  The  interpretations  of  Christianity  that  the 
world  is  now  receiving  do  not  come  in  that  chan- 
nel, but  from  adjacent  or  original  sources,  —  from 
poets  and  essayists  and  naturalists  and  practical 
workers  in  fields  of  Christian  activity.  The  books 
that  are  influencing  theology  to-day  come  from 
such  sources,  and  the  question  whether  the  authors 
are  familiar  with  technical  theology  is  relatively 
unimportant.  The  writer  does  not  deride  theo- 
logy past  or  present,  —  it  will  always  be  the  queen  of 


322  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

the  sciences,  —  but  only  seeks  to  make  it  clear  that 
it  is  a  matter  of  trifling  significance  that  Bushnell 
was  not  a  wide  reader  of  it.  He  was  a  forerunner 
of  a  class  of  students  and  thinkers  who  are  mould- 
ing if  not  re-creating  theology  without  being  tech- 
nical theologians. 

The  topics  in  this  book  wear  an  audacious  cast ; 
some  have  been  debated  from  the  beginning  and 
are  still  without  answer ;  others  are  undergoing 
the  scrutiny  of  science  ;  and  others  still  are  speedily 
lost  in  the  mystery  of  being.  Most  of  them  are 
inroads  into  psychology,  then  even  more  than  now 
a  rudimentary  science.  The  fault,  if  there  be  any, 
in  his  treatment  is  over-emphasis  of  his  main  con- 
tention. He  starts  with  a  determination  to  find  a 
moral  use  in  whatever  falls  under  his  eye,  and  so 
names  some  things  as  moral  that  are  simply  eco- 
nomic or  incidental,  and  moral  only  as  contribut- 
ing to  a  final  moral  use.  The  end  of  all  things 
may  be  moral,  but  to  regard  everything  that  leads 
up  to  it  as  moral  is  to  set  aside  distinctions  that 
are  essential  to  exact  thought,  and  to  force  all 
things  into  one  category.  Bushnell  is  correct  in 
denying  the  assumption  "  that  physical  uses  are  the 
decisive  tests  or  objects  of  all  the  contrivance  to  be 
looked  for  in  God's  works,"  and  in  contending  that 
"  they  are  resolvable  only  by  their  moral  uses  ; " 
but  it  is  a  mistake  to  regard  the  physical  and  the 
moral  as  antithetic.  It  is  at  this  point  that  he  lets 
in  certain  theological  conceptions  that  relate  to  evil 
and  its  effect  on  nature  which  no  longer  have  foot- 


ESSAYS   AND   ADDRESSES  323 

ing  in  the  world  of  thought ;  moral  evil  has  nothing 
to  do  with  nature  ;  even  analogy  fails  to  connect 
them.  But  the  chief  defect  in  these  papers  is  an 
inevitable  one,  growing  out  of  the  imperfect  science 
of  the  day.  Bushnell  was  a  scientific  thinker,  but 
there  was  at  the  time  no  theory  of  nature  as  a 
whole  that  was  scientific.  Some  of  his  topics,  how- 
ever, were  cosmical  in  their  breadth,  and  his  treat- 
ment of  them  could  not  always  be  synthetic.  He 
wrote  before  evolution  had  been  baptized  into  the 
household  of  faith,  and  hence  was  without  the 
guidance  of  that  general  law  under  which  he  could 
have  ranged  his  facts  in  scientific  and  harmonious 
order.  But  while  ignorant  of  evolution,  he  was  all 
the  while  using  it  in  unconscious  ways  simply  be- 
cause his  thought  ran  so  close  to  it  at  many  points. 
Still,  what  he  lacked,  less,  indeed,  than  any  theo- 
logical writer  of  his  day,  was  a  unifying  principle 
in  his  use  of  scientific  facts.  In  its  place  he  put 
analogy,  —  a  hint,  but  not  a  law.  Hence  some  of 
the  essays  are  a  mixture  of  truth  and  mistake, 
as  those  on  Pain,  and  Physical  Danger.  But  it  is 
easy  to  pass  over  the  mistake,  and  dwell  on  the 
truth,  which  often  is  most  fresh  and  suggestive. 

The  book  is  fascinating  beyond  almost  any  other 
from  his  pen  by  reason  of  its  intellectual  glow  and 
vigor.  Evidently  the  papers  came  from  him  when 
he  was  at  his  best.  In  no  other  of  his  works  is 
there  such  wealth  of  epigram  and  such  flash  of 
genius.  Often  a  treatise  is  compressed  into  a  sen- 
tence, as  when  he  says  that  "  the  faith  of  immor- 


324  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

tality  depends  on  a  sense  of  it  begotten,  not  on  an 
argument  for  it  concluded."  He  calls  "  sleep  a 
spiritualizer  in  the  constitution  of  nature  itself," 
and  pain  "  a  kind  of  general  sacrament  for  the 
world."  "  God  is  always  letting  things  come  into 
the  world  that  He  will  not  let  stay  in  it."  "  While 
God  is  doing  facts,  we  are  thinking  dangers." 
"  Immortality  is  nothing  but  the  fact  translated  of 
immutable  morality."  The  chapter  from  which 
this  quotation  is  taken  —  "  Of  the  Mutabilities  of 
Life  "  —  not  only  redeems  a  hackneyed  theme  from 
the  commonplace,  but  is  an  original  discussion  of 
immortality,  and  fit  to  become  a  classic  on  the  sub- 
ject. Indeed,  the  whole  book  is  full  of  profound 
suggestion  and  subjects  that  are  inevitably  treated 
in  the  pidpit,  and  the  young  preacher  cannot  do 
better  than  first  to  saturate  his  mind  with  them, 
and  then  borrow  as  liberally  as  honesty  will  allow. 
We  take  the  liberty  to  commend  especially  Bush- 
nell's  description  of  a  wise  man  in  the  paper  on 
"Insanity"  (p.  269),  the  ablest,  perhaps,  in  the 
series,  a  masterly  summation  of  requisites  that  re- 
minds one  of  John  Henry  Newman's  description  of 
a  gentleman  in  his  "  Idea  of  a  University  "  (p.  208), 
and  of  the  uses  of  education  (p.  178),  two  pages 
of  English  literature  hard  to  be  matched  in  dis- 
criminating analysis  and  beauty  of  diction. 

"  A  wise  man  is  one  who  understands  himself 
well  enough  to  make  due  allowance  for  such  un- 
sane  moods  and  varieties,  never  concluding  that  a 
thing  is  thus  or  thus,  because  just  now  it  bears 


ESSAYS  AND  ADDRESSES  325 

that  look ;  waiting  often  to  see  what  a  sleep,  or  a 
walk,  or  a  cool  revision,  or  perhaps  a  considerable 
turn  of  repentance  will  do.  He  does  not  slash 
upon  a  subject  or  a  man  from  the  point  of  a  just 
now  rising  temper.  He  maintains  a  noble  can- 
dor, by  waiting  sometimes  for  a  gentler  spirit 
and  a  better  sense  of  truth.  He  is  never  intol- 
erant of  other  men's  judgments,  because  he  is  a 
little  distrustful  of  his  own.  He  restrains  the 
dislikes  of  prejudice,  because  he  has  a  prejudice 
against  his  dislikes.  His  resentments  are  softened 
by  his  condemnations  of  himself.  His  depressions 
do  not  crush  him,  because  he  has  sometimes  seen 
the  sun,  and  believes  it  may  appear  again.  He 
revises  his  opinions  readily,  because  he  has  a  right, 
he  thinks,  to  better  opinions,  if  he  can  find  them. 
He  holds  fast  sound  opinions,  lest  his  moodiness 
in  change  should  take  all  truth  away.  And  if  his 
unsane  thinking  appears  to  be  toppling  him  down 
the  gulfs  of  skepticism,  he  recovers  himself  by  just 
raising  the  question  whether  a  more  sane  way  of 
thinking  might  not  think  differently.  A  man  who 
is  duly  aware  thus  of  his  own  distempered  faculty 
makes  a  life  how  different  from  one  who  acts  as  if 
he  were  infallible,  and  had  nothing  to  do  but  just 
to  let  himself  be  pronounced !  There  is,  in  fact, 
no  possibility  of  conducting  a  life  successfully  on 
in  that  manner.  If  there  be  any  truth  that  vitally 
concerns  the  morally  right  self -keeping  and  beauty 
of  character,  it  is  that  which  allows  and  makes 
room  for  the  distempers  of  a  practically  unsane 


326  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

state ;  one  that  puts  action  by  the  side  of  correc- 
tion, and  keeps  it  in  wisdom  by  keeping  it  in  reg- 
ulative company  "  (p.  269). 

We  take  leave  of  these  delightful  papers,  that 
"  tear  the  disguise  of  a  curse  from  many  a  bless- 
ing," with  a  quotation  from  that  on  Winter,  —  half 
sermon  and  half  idyl,  full  of  apothegm  and  poetry, 
common  sense  and  fancy,  the  logic  halting  at  times 
but  still  holding  on  to  its  conclusion,  —  a  paper 
to  be  read  with  Whittier's  "  Snow- Bound,"  and 
closing  with  an  exquisite  touch,  perhaps  a  per- 
sonal forecast  mingling  with  the  words  :  — 

"  Now  is  the  time  to  meditate  all  our  most 
serious  concerns  of  life  anew.  If  the  main  ques- 
tion is  still  unsettled  or  unattended  to,  there  is 
no  other  so  good  time  for  a  duty  that  requires  so 
much  of  concentration.  If  we  have  grown  slack 
in  our  principles,  now  is  the  time  to  set  them  up 
and  be  ourselves  set  up  in  their  company.  If  the 
fascinations  of  time  have  stolen  us  away  from  the 
invisible  good,  now  is  the  time  to  set  our  gaze 
more  steadfastly  on  it,  when  the  good  that  is  visi- 
ble is  frosted,  and  hid  under  snows  from  the  sight. 
Now  is  the  time  to  be  rational  and  strong,  to  re- 
vise our  mistakes,  shake  off  our  self-indulgences, 
prepare  our  charities,  justify  our  friendships,  shed 
a  sacred  influence  over  our  families,  set  ourselves 
to  the  service  of  our  country  and  our  God,  by 
whatever  cost  of  sacrifice.  Doing  this,  as  we  may, 
it  will  not  much  concern  us,  I  think,  if  our  flight 
should  also  be  in  the  winter  "  (p.  209). 


CHAPTER  XVII 
HOME  LIFE  AND  LAST  DAYS 


"I  thank  God  that  the  Cross  has  been  set  up  in  the  world, 
for  thereby  have  I  learned  to  know  what  Life  means." 

"I  long  to  be  risen  from  the  dead,  and  fully  alive  as  I  was 
made  to  live  !  Nothing  now  looks  captivating  to  me  but  to  be 
altogether  entered  into  God  and  quieted  in  the  inspirations  of 
true  Faith."  —  Bushnell. 

"  After  this  it  was  noised  abroad  that  Mr.  Valiant-f or-truth 
was  taken  with  a  summons  by  the  same  post  as  the  other,  and 
had  this  for  a  token  that  the  summons  was  true,  '  that  his  pitcher 
was  broken  at  the  fountain.'  When  he  understood  it,  he  called 
for  his  friends  and  told  them  of  it.  Then  said  he,  '  I  am  going 
to  my  Father's ;  and  though  with  great  difficulty  I  am  got 
hither,  yet  now  I  do  not  repent  me  of  all  the  trouble  I  have  been 
at  to  arrive  where  I  am.  My  sword  I  give  to  him  that  shall  suc- 
ceed me  in  my  pilgrimage,  and  my  courage  and  skill  to  him  that 
can  get  it.  My  marks  and  scars  I  carry  with  me,  to  be  a  witness 
for  me  that  I  have  fought  His  battles  who  now  will  be  my 
rewarder.' "  —  Pilgrim'' s  Progress. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

HOME   LIFE   AND    LAST   DATS 

Bushnell  was  a  theologian  of  the  type  that 
requires  a  knowledge  of  the  life  quite  as  much  as 
an  examination  of  opinions.  His  heart  made  him 
the  theologian  he  was  ;  hence  a  look  at  him  in  his 
home  is  necessary.  We  quote  freely  from  his 
daughter  in  the  Biograjmy. 

"  First  among  my  recollections  .  .  .  are  the 
daily,  after-dinner  romps,  not  lasting  long,  but 
most  vigorous  and  hearty  at  the  moment. 

"  A  playful  use  of  the  faculties  seemed  ever  to 
present  its  ideal  side  to  him,  and  it  was  thus  that 
he  joined  with  his  children  '  in  the  free  self -impul- 
sion of  play,  which  is  to  foreshadow  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  soul's  ripe  order  and  attainment  in 
good.'  Thus  he  made  of  our  childhood  '  a  paradise 
of  nature,  the  recollection  of  which  behind  us 
might  image  to  us  the  paradise  of  grace  before 
us.'  It  was  while  watching  the  play  of  his  own 
children  with  a  graceful  kitten  that  he  conceived 
the  idea  which  animates  his  '  Work  and  Play ; ' 
and  in  the  same  manner  he  drew  from  his  own 
home  experience  the  child-loving  chapter  on  '  Plays 
and  Pastimes,'  in  his  '  Christian  Nurture.'    Fun  was 


330  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

one  element  of  his  playfulness,  constantly  bubbling 
over  from  the  deep  spring  of  his  most  earnest 
thought,  sparkling  in  unexpected  places,  and  ever 
refreshing  the  long  and  dusty  stages  of  life's  jour- 
ney. He  was  no  story-teller  or  professed  wit ;  but 
the  droll  side  of  a  subject  was  always  peeping  out 
at  him,  and  he  let  it  flash  from  his  speech  along 
with  his  more  serious  conceptions,  as  if  it  had  a 
right  to  be  there.  Twenty  years  of  ill-health  did 
not  quench  this  light,  nor,  even  at  death's  door, 
extinguish  it." 

"  Summer  mornings  and  their  dewy  freshness  are 
forever  associated  with  him.  The  reveille  which 
waked  us  from  healthy  slumber  was  often  the 
brisk  whetting  of  his  scythe.  Many  a  time  have 
I  risen,  to  watch  him  from  the  window,  as  he  put 
in  practice  still  his  early  theory  of  '  making  the 
cross  frictions  correct  each  other.'  He  swung:  his 
scythe  easily,  cutting  rapidly  a  broad,  clean  swath. 
It  was  his  habit  to  rise  very  early,  and  to  work 
for  an  hour  or  two  in  his  garden  before  breakfast, 
roughly  dressed.  Work  done,  he  took  a  heroic 
shower-bath,  made  a  neat  toilet,  and  appeared  in 
the  shady  breakfast-room  with  smooth  locks  (they 
were  usually,  at  other  times,  the  reverse  of  smooth), 
and  with  a  cheerfid,  composed  mien,  as  he  con- 
ducted the  family  prayers.  At  breakfast  the  daily 
paper  became,  through  him,  the  epitome  of  the 
world  to  us  all.  He  brought  to  the  reading;  all  his 
resources,  —  his  thought  on  social  philosophy  ;  his 
knowledge  of  geography,  chemistry,  and  geology ; 


HOME   LIFE   AND   LAST   DAYS  331 

his  love  of  adventure,  of  mechanics,  of  architec- 
ture, and  of  engineering  in  its  various  brandies ; 
and  throwing  his  own  light  on  every  subject,  evolved 
from  the  daily  telegrams  a  fascinating  panoramic 
view  of  the  world's  life  for  the  past  twenty-four 
hours.  Under  his  magic  insight  the  most  com- 
monplace events  assumed  an  unlooked-for  mean- 
ing, and  took  their  place  in  relation  to  all  other 
events  and  histories.  He  had  no  unrelated  facts.1 
In  all  matters  pertaining  to  our  national  welfare 
his  patriotism  was  ever  on  the  alert,  and  he  saw 
on  the  horizon  '  the  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's 
hand,'  which  to  other  eyes  had  hardly  yet  begun 
to  threaten  storm.  At  the  dinner-table  he  came 
to  us  from  his  thought-world,  from  the  writing  of 
sermons  or  books  ;  and  then  he  was  no  more  of 
the  outward,  but  of  the  subjective  and  inward  life. 
Then  his  very  hair  stood  on  end,  electric  with 
thought ;  his  eyes  had  a  fixed  and  absent  look, 
and  he  forgot  the  name  of  a  potato.  His  mind 
being  far  away,  the  present  body  fed  itself  hastily, 
and  with  little  note  of  food  or  drink.  It  was  no 
wonder  that  he  experienced  the  horrors  of  dyspep- 
sia. But  for  the  enforced  exercise  of  the  after- 
noon, he  would  have  been  earlier  the  victim  of 
untimely  brain-work. 

"  Never  was  there  such  a  companion  for  a  walk 
or  a  drive,  though  he  was  a  very  careless  driver. 
He  saw  twice  as  much  as  most  people  do  out  of 

1  We  regard  this  sentence  as  the  most  discriminating  remark 
concerning  Bushnell  that  we  have  ever  seen. 


332  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

doors,  took  a  mental  survey  of  all  land  surfaces, 
and  kept  in  his  head  a  complete  map  of  the  phy- 
sical geography  of  every  place  with  which  he  was 
acquainted.  He  knew  the  leaf  and  bark  of  every 
tree  and  shrub  that  grows  in  New  England ;  esti- 
mated the  water  power  of  every  stream  he  crossed ; 
knew  where  all  the  springs  were,  and  how  they 
could  be  made  available  ;  engineered  roads  and 
railroads ;  laid  out,  in  imagination,  parks,  ceme- 
teries, and  private  places ;  noted  the  laying  of 
every  bit  of  stone  wall,  and  the  gait  of  every 
horse  ;  buildings,  machinery,  the  natural  forma- 
tions of  geology,  —  nothing  escaped  him.  And 
the  charm  of  it  was,  that  whether  he  was  plan- 
ning some  improvement  or  observing  some  natural 
beauty,  it  was  all  done  easily,  while  he  cut  a  cane 
from  a  roadside  thicket,  or  brushed  the  flies  from 
his  horse. 

"  In  the  parental  relation,  he  was,  without  effort 
or  self-assertion,  possessed  of  an  unbounded  influ- 
ence. Always  amiable  and  gentle  at  home,  he 
rarely  reproved,  and  gave  few  commands.  I  think 
I  can  still  count  on  the  fingers  of  one  hand  every 
occasion  on  which  I  received  from  him  a  real  repri- 
mand. Then  every  word  told,  —  for  words  were 
few,  —  and  brought  a  burning  shame  for  the 
wrong.  It  was  not  the  voice  of  his  personal  au- 
thority, but  Right  and  Truth  incarnate,  which 
spoke  through  him,  and  spoke  always  to  a  con- 
victed conscience.  He  was  singularly  obliging  and 
considerate,  and  never  called  any  one  to  wait  upon 


HOME   LIFE   AND   LAST  DAYS  333 

him,  preferring  for  himself  and  his  children  a  habit 
of  personal  independence  and  self-help.  Even  after 
he  had  been  many  years  an  invalid,  he  would  not 
allow  any  one  to  carry  up  the  wood  for  his  study 
fire,  and  woidd  arrive  at  the  top  of  the  second 
flight  of  stairs  with  his  armful,  panting,  but  still 
rejoicing  in  his  victory  over  nature.  He  encour- 
aged his  little  girls  to  help  him  in  many  a  piece  of 
domestic  work,  such  as  raking  up  the  dooryard, 
or  piling  wood  in  the  cellar,  and,  if  he  was  over- 
looking our  good  old  William,  would  generally 
do  rather  more  than  half  the  work,  finding  that 
easier  than  to  show  some  one  else  how  to  do  it." 

The  account  of  his  final  visit  to  Ms  early  home 
must  not  be  omitted :  — 

"  One  autumn,  when  we  were  about  to  leave 
New  Preston,  my  father  said  to  his  daughters,  — 
*  You  may  never  be  here  with  me  again,  and  I 
want  to  take  you  to  my  old  home  and  over  the  old 
farm.'  We  went,  and  saw  the  stalwart  maples 
before  the  door  of  the  homestead,  which  he  had 
himself  brought  down  as  saplings  from  the  moun- 
tain upon  his  shoulders  and  planted  there.  We 
drank  of  the  delicious  cold  spring  beneath  a  fine 
tree,  where  he  used  sometimes  to  take  his  nooning 
when  at  farm-work,  snatching  perhaps  a  little  time 
for  study  as  a  seasoning  for  the  dinner-pail.  There 
was  his  boasted  piece  of  stone  wall,  proof  of  the 
accuracy  of  his  eye,  as  firm  now  as  when  he  laid  it 
fifty  years  ago.  Each  stone  fits  snugly  in  its  place, 
the  corresponding  surfaces  having  come  together 


334  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

as  if  by  some  law  of  hidden  affinity.  It  is  doubt- 
ful if  lie  was  ever  as  well  satisfied  with  any  of  his 
writings  as  he  was  with  that  stone  wall.  There, 
too,  in  the  same  field,  if  I  mistake  not,  was  the 
big  boulder,  in  the  shadow  of  which  he  had  once 
prayed  in  youthful  doubt  and  distress,  with,  per- 
haps, some  unconscious  allusion  to  the  '  shadow  of 
a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land,'  and  whence,  even  in 
boyhood,  his  heart  had  exhaled  in  mist  at  sunrise 
the  dew  of  its  heavenward  aspirations.  He  spoke 
to  us,  as  often  before,  of  his  good  and  wise  mother, 
the  notable  housewife  and  care-taker,  the  discreet 
adviser  and  patient  manager  of  wayward  boyhood. 
Yonder,  on  the  hill,  was  the  church,  —  the  meet- 
ing-house, rather,  —  whither  he  used  to  trudge  on 
Sundays  at  his  mother's  side,  to  listen  to  that  old- 
time  religious  teaching,  on  whose  '  hard  anvils  of 
abstraction  the  blows  of  thought  must  needs  be 
ever  ringing.'  There,  down  in  the  hollow,  was 
the  dam  which  he  built  for  his  father's  mill.  The 
mill  is  long  since  gone  to  ruin,  but  the  dam  re- 
mains in  good  condition.  Recollections  crowded 
fast,  and  time  was  too  short  for  all  we  would  have 
liked  to  see.  We  were  on  our  homeward  way, 
and  I  believe  it  was  indeed  the  last  time  I  was 
ever  there  with  him." 

"  One  amiable  peculiarity  of  his  was  his  ready 
admiration  for  very  young  men  of  his  own  profes- 
sion. No  matter  how  slight  the  sapling,  he  saw 
hope  in  the  growing  tree,  and  had  his  encourage- 
ments and  praise  always  ready.     A  man  was  apt 


HOME  LIFE  AND  LAST  DAYS  335 

to  be  judged,  first  of  all,  by  his  legs  and  his  man- 
ner of  standing  on  them.  He  who  could  not  stand 
straight  and  square  upon  his  foundations,  or  who 
wriggled  and  twisted  a  body  supported  on  weak, 
unsteady  columns,  found  little  favor  in  my  father's 
eyes.  But  youth  has  infinite  possibilities,  and  his 
imagination  reveled  in  the  possible  greatness  to 
be  evolved  from  its  chaos.  At  least,  it  was  in  this 
way  only  that  we  could  account  for  his  estimate  of 
many  young  ministers.  The  most  recent  graduate 
of  the  divinity  school,  still  floundering  in  things 
too  deep  for  him,  accepting  and  offering  as  equiva- 
lents for  ideas  the  terminology  of  the  schools,  and 
struggling  somehow  to  get  expressed  the  thoughts 
he  had  but  half  thought,  found  in  him  a  patient 
hearer  and  indulgent  critic.  We  used  to  say  that 
he  was  wont  to  attribute  to  the  young  speaker  the 
thoughts  which  he  had  himself  had  leisure  to  think 
out  during  the  service.  At  the  same  time,  he  had 
perhaps  too  little  regard  for  the  supersensitiveness 
of  morbid  youth.  He  liked  a  sensibility  which  was 
large  and  full-toned,  and  which  responded  with  har- 
monious vibrations  to  the  touch  of  great  inspira- 
tions. But  that  kind  of  sensibility  which  is  only 
a  source  of  irritable  suffering  to  the  subject  he 
might  pity,  but  could  not  understand." 

"  Of  my  father's  paternal  tenderness,  shown  daily 
in  little  ways,  and  sometimes,  in  rare  moments, 
finding  exquisite  expression,  this  is  not  the  place 
to  speak  openly.  It  may  be  guessed  what  warmth 
he  radiated,  if  we  recall  that  luminous  revelation 


336  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

of  himself  when  he  said,  '  It  is  the  strongest  want 
of  my  being,  to  love.'  Nor  can  we  reveal  the  gen- 
tle, fatherly  counsels,  and  the  attractive  personal 
religious  talks,  all  the  more  prized  because  of  their 
rarity.  In  such  conversations  it  was  always  the 
winning,  never  the  compelling  side  of  religious  ex- 
perience, which  he  presented  to  us.  In  the  light 
of  such  sacred  revelations  of  himself,  the  life  which 
he  had  been  living  before  us  day  by  day,  year  after 
year,  was  known  by  us  to  have  its  source,  not  in 
his  own  will  merely,  however  high  and  fixed  its 
purpose,  but  mainly  in  such  inspirations  as  come 
from  God  himself.  It  was  impossible  to  live  with 
him  and  not  recognize  the  freedom  and  spontaneity 
of  his  action.  Every  sacrifice  was  voluntary,  and 
all  his  effort  resembled  play.  And  although  this 
was  more  easily  possible  in  a  nature  which  worked 
with  the  ease  and  power  of  his,  yet  he  believed, 
and  we  felt,  that  it  was  a  living  faith  which  made 
and  kept  him  free.  .  .   . 

"  But  when  all  is  said,  there  is  nothing  said  which 
will  make  his  image  live  again.  One  glimpse  of 
his  figure,  as  he  walked  along  the  street  with  that 
long,  springy  step  of  his,  the  cane  swinging  and 
pointing  forward  decisively  as  he  went,  woidd  be 
worth  it  all.  Or,  if  that  were  too  slight  ground 
for  an  acquaintance  with  him,  the  door  of  friend- 
ship even  might  be  opened  by  a  gleam  of  that  pen- 
etrating smile  which  ever  and  anon  illumined  his 
grave  face.  Better  still  it  would  be  to  hear  him 
talk  for  a  moment  in  terse  and  picturesque  phrase 


HOME  LIFE  AND  LAST  DAYS  337 

about  the  common  tilings  of  life,  a  new-coined  word 
or  a  sharply  fresh  suggestion  revealing  the  original 
mind.  But  it  was  in  family  life  that  he  shone  the 
brightest.  Let  it  be  no  detraction  from  his  mag- 
nitude that  my  father  was  largest  and  most  ideal 
to  those  who  knew  him  in  the  nearness  of  family 
life  and  love.  It  is  they  who  know  most  of  his 
zest,  his  enthusiasm,  his  inspirable  faculty;  of  the 
wit  and  piquant  flavor  of  his  language ;  of  the 
lofty  and  refined  purity  of  his  feelings  and  his 
habits,  and  his  delicate  considerateness  for  those 
who  were  dear  to  him ;  of  his  great  unexpressed 
and  inexpressible  tenderness ;  of  the  reasoning 
faith  which  beheld  the  unseen." 

The  writer,  having  had  but  slight  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  Bushnell,  can  give  no  account  of 
him  that  woidd  be  of  any  value  as  compared  with 
this  tender  and  exquisite  picture  of  his  home  life. 
Hence  the  liberal  quotations  made  in  this  chapter 
in  regard  to  his  closing  years. 

It  was  in  1870  that  the  struggle  of  nearly 
twenty  years  began  sensibly  to  draw  toward  a 
close.  But  though  literally  a  decline,  it  was  a 
period  of  work  up  to  the  very  last,  and,  more  than 
all,  it  was  a  period  of  self-development  and  ripen- 
ing into  the  ideal  of  his  character.  He  began  his 
life  with  a  passion  for  God  ;  it  gave  direction  to 
his  first  theological  expression ;  it  runs  through  all 
his  works  and  underlies  his  alleged  heresies  ;  it 
fills  and  crowns  his  life  in  these  last  years.  To 
understand  Bushnell,  it  is  necessary  to  understand 


338  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

this  passionate  sense  of  God.  "While  spending 
some  time  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Waramaug,  he 
writes  to  his  wife  in  a  strain  almost  ecstatic  ;  but 
if  closely  examined,  it  will  be  seen  to  be,  like 
everything  that  came  from  him,  severely  ratiocina- 
tive.  He  could  not  feel  in  any  way,  nor  on  any 
subject,  without  an  unconscious  play  of  the  reason- 
ing faculty;  or,  it  is  better  to  say,  without  the 
action  of  his  entire  nature  in  its  right  proportions, 
the  thought  of  God  crowning  and  dominating  the 
whole. 

Warren,  August  7,  1870. 
I  have  had  some  delightful  times  and  passages 
since  I  came  here  such  as  I  never  had  before.  I 
never  so  saw  God,  never  had  Him  come  so  broadly, 
clearly  out.  He  has  not  spoken  to  me,  but  He  has 
done  what  is  more.  There  has  been  nothing  de- 
batable to  speak  for,  but  an  infinite  easiness  and 
universal  presentation  to  thought,  as  it  were  by 
revelation.  Nothing  ever  seemed  so  wholly  invit- 
ing and  so  profoundly  supreme  to  the  mind.  Had 
there  been  a  strain  for  it,  then  it  could  not  be.  O 
my  God!  what  a  fact  to  possess  and  know  that  He 
is !  I  have  not  seemed  to  compare  Him  with  any- 
thing, and  set  Him  in  a  higher  value ;  but  He  has 
been  the  all,  and  the  altogether,  everywhere,  lovely. 
There  is  nothing  else  to  compete  ;  there  is  nothing 
else,  in  fact.  It  has  been  as  if  all  the  revelations, 
through  good  men,  nature,  Christ,  had  been  now 
through,  and  their  cargo  unloaded,  the  capital 
meaning  produced,  and  the  God  set  forth  in  his 


HOME  LIFE  AND  LAST  DAYS  339 

own  proper  day,  —  the  good,  the  true,  the  perfect, 
the  all-holy  and  benignant.  The  question  has  not 
been  whether  I  could  somehow  get  nearer,  but  as 
if  He  had  come  out  himself  just  near  enough,  and 
left  me  nothing  but  to  stand  still  and  see  the  sal- 
vation ;  no  excitement,  no  stress,  but  an  amazing 
beatific  tranquillity.  I  never  thought  I  coidd  pos- 
sess God  so  completely. 

To  a  friend  he  said :  "If  I  had  my  life  to  live 
over  again,  there  is  one  thing  I  would  not  do  —  I 
would  not  push." 

To  a  stranger  struggling  against  implacability, 
apparently  under  aggravated  provocations,  he 
wrote  :  "  Great  trials  make  great  saints.  Deserts 
and  stone  pillows  prepare  for  an  open  heaven  and 
an  angel-crowded  ladder.  But  you  are  indeed 
sorely  probed,  and  from  the  depths  of  my  soul  I 
pity  you.  If  this  is  any  comfort  to  you,  let  down 
your  bucket  to  the  end  of  your  chain,  with  the  as- 
surance that  what  is  deepest  and  most  tender  in 
me  is  open  to  your  dip.  But  your  victory  rests 
with  yourself.  Kinghood  over  the  vast  territory 
of  self  must  be,  in  order  to  a  genuine  forgiveness. 
To  tear  yourself  from  yourself,  to  double  yourself 
up  and  thrust  yourself  under  your  heels,  and  make 
a  general  smash  of  yourself,  and  be  all  the  more 
truly  yourself  for  this  mauling  and  self-annihila- 
tion, —  this  is  the  work  before  you,  and  a  mighty 
work  it  is.  To  accomplish  this,  we  must  be  close 
enough  to  Immanuel  to  feel   the  beating  of  his 


340  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

heart.  By  the  time  you  are  through  your  strug- 
gle, you  will  be  a  god,  fit  to  occupy  a  seat  with 
Christ  iu  his  throne.  Kings  alone  can  truly  for- 
give, as  kings  alone  can  reign.  You  know  the 
import  of  the  Cross.  Set  your  heart  like  a  flint 
against  every  suggestion  that  cheapens  the  blood 
of  the  dear,  great  Lamb,  and  you  will  as  surely 
get  the  meaning  of  Christ  crucified,  as  that  he  left 
his  life  in  the  world." 

In  1871,  and  in  the  years  following,  he  spent 
a  part  of  the  spring  and  summer  in  Eipton,  Ver- 
mont, at  the  Bread  Loaf  Inn.  His  letters  are 
much  in  the  strain  of  those  already  quoted,  full  of 
an  ever-deepening  sense  of  God,  and  of  hope  that 
he  may  live  to  carry  out  his  work  on  "  Forgiveness 
and  Law."  He  writes  :  "  What  a  comfort  there 
is  in  the  fact  that  God  is  a  supreme  Integer,  help- 
ing us  up  always  into  range  with  himself."  "  I 
do  not  want  to  stay  and  wear  away  into  feebleness. 
Let  me  go,  if  I  may,  with  some  sense  in  me." 
In  August  he  writes  to  his  wife :  — 
"  I  have  a  good  many  very  sweet  hours  in  these 
wood  walks  and  clhnbings,  never  alone,  but  having 
my  dear,  shall  I  say  revered,  Friend  with  me.  I 
had  yesterday  (Sunday)  a  delightful  refreshment 
in  reading,  out  of  Goethe's  '  Wilhelm  Meister,' 
Vol.  I.,  the  '  Confessions  of  a  Fair  Saint.'  I  never 
read  a  Christian  experience  that  so  beautifully 
tallied  with  my  own,  the  main  difference  being 
that  the  Fair  Saint  never  had  been  much  of  an  un- 
believer, save  as  her  friends,  over-strict  in  ortho- 


HOME  LIFE  AND  LAST  DAYS  341 

doxy,  were  obliged  to  trouble  themselves  much  on 
her  account.  I  was  never  more  struck  than  by 
the  observation,  that  living  in  feeling  and  subjec- 
tive thought,  independently  of  outward  objects  and 
works,  'tends,  as  it  were,  to  excavate  us  and  to 
undermine  the  whole  foundation  of  our  being:.' 
As  if  it  were  a  way  to  become  hollow  and  finally 
vacant."  The  passage  from  Goethe  goes  on  as 
follows  :  "To  be  active  is  the  primary  vocation 
of  man ;  all  the  intervals  in  which  he  is  obliged  to 
rest,  he  should  employ  in  gaining  clearer  know- 
ledge of  external  things,  for  this  will  in  its  turn 
facilitate  activity."  1 

It  is  not  strange  that  Bushnell  was  struck  with 
the  resemblance  ;  no  description  of  himself  could 
be  closer.  It  is  interesting  also  as  showing  a  sym- 
pathy with  Goethe's  views  of  religion.  In  many 
respects  the  two  men  were  alike  in  the  play  of 
their  minds. 

While  at  Ripton  he  published  in  "  The  Advance  " 
(Chicago)  a  series  of  suggestive  articles  on  Prayer, 
and  carried  through  the  press  his  sermons  on 
"  Living  Subjects."  Meanwhile  he  was  still  busy 
with  "  Forgiveness  and  Law,"  a  work  which,  what- 
ever may  be  said  of  its  theological  value,  had  root 
in  his  deepest  experiences.  Nothing  that  came 
from  his  pen  was  more  sincere.  He  attributed  to 
God  his  own  feelings  and  struggles  in  attaining  to 
that  forgiveness  which  he  felt  he  must   exercise 

1  Dowden's  edition,  vol.  i.  p.  409.    Further  points  of  marked 
fiympathv  can  be  traced  on  page  382. 


312  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

towards  those  who  had  ill-treated  him.  In  July, 
1873,  he  heard  that  his  long  labor  for  the  Park 
in  Hartford,  and  the  erection  of  the  State  House 
within  its  grounds,  had  ended  in  success.  He 
wrote  to  his  wife  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  see,  by  a  little  scrap  in  the  '  Springfield 
Republican,'  that  the  State-house  battle  is  proba- 
bly carried.  Hang  up  the  bow  and  the  quiver 
now,  and  be  at  peace !  Thank  God,  my  days  of 
war  are  ended !  I  will  not  fight  again,  even  for 
Hartford.  I  am  delighted  now  to  spread  myself 
out  on  the  quiet  of  a  last  age,  which  I  hope  and 
pray  may  be  my  best.  Perhaps  my  irresponsibility, 
my  unengagedness  and  clearness  of  burden,  may 
do  something  for  me  physically ;  if  not,  I  hope  it 
will  spiritually,  at  least." 

During  his  last  stay  at  Bread  Loaf  Inn  he  met 
Professor  Austin  Phelps  of  Andover  and  the  Rev. 
Dr.  George  Bacon  of  Orange,  New  Jersey.  With 
the  latter  he  formed  a  warm  friendship  that  proved 
of  great  service  and  comfort  to  him.  The  sojourn 
of  Professor  Phelps  under  the  same  roof  furnished 
him  the  data  for  an  elaborate  article  published  in 
the  "Christian  Union"  (now  "The  Outlook") 
soon  after  Bushn ell's  death.  Quotations  from  it 
will  be  made  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  close  of  1873  found  him,  as  he  wrote  to 
Dr.  George  Bacon,  "  going  steadily  down,  but  con- 
triving meantime  to  work  a  little."  He  had  fin- 
ished "  Forgiveness  and  Law,"  but,  as  if  suspi- 
cious of  it,  submitted  it  to  friends,  asking  their 


HOME  LIFE  AND  LAST  DAYS  343 

"  most  fearless  criticism."  In  a  letter  to  his  life- 
long friend,  Mr.  Chesebrough,  dated  May  21, 
1874,  he  says:  "It  is  the  newest  thing  I  have 
done  for  the  matter  of  it,  and  I  have  been  suffer- 
ing real  oppression  of  mind  from  the  uncertainty 
I  am  in,  lest  I  may  not  have  been  able  to  adjust 
myself  rightly  in  the  statement."  To  Dr.  Bacon 
he  writes  (May  4,  1874)  :  "  I  have  a  queer  feeling 
about  this  book.  ...  I  seem  to  have  struck  out 
in  it  beyond  the  sight  of  land,  uncertain  of  every- 
thing, yet  afraid  of  nothing,  and  in  some  sense 
confident  of  finding  my  way  into  harbor."  In  this 
sentence  we  find  the  source  of  his  confidence  and 
of  his  uncertainty ;  the  analogies  confirmed  his  faith, 
but  they  also  "  drove  him  out  of  sight  of  land." 
As  with  Plato,  a  too  close  look  at  nature  dazzled 
him,  and  he  drifted  toward  regions  from  which  he 
had  fled.  When  reminded  by  a  critic  in  the 
"  Christian  Union  "  that  he  had  pressed  his  ana- 
logy too  far,  he  coincides  unless  the  analogy  be 
regarded  as  holding  "only  so  far  as  our  proper 
nature  is  compared  with  the  divine  nature."  He 
seems  to  forget  that  it  is  the  limit  of  resemblance 
that  is  the  point  in  question.  His  fear  lest  he 
had  heretofore  looked  too  much  on  the  man  ward 
side  of  the  subject  was  unnecessary.  The  incar- 
nation contains  all  the  elements  of  the  problem, 
and  the  development  of  that  was  the  harbor  to  be 
sought.  As  often  happens  with  a  great  original 
thinker,  he  failed  to  see  the  trend  of  his  work 
taken  as  a  whole.     It  did  not  set  toward  divine 


344  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

self-placating  nor  toward  anything  in  that  region, 
but  toward  the  incarnation  viewed  as  the  life  of 
God  in  humanity,  where  the  grounds  of  forgive- 
ness are  faith  and  obedience.  With  Bushnell's 
last  word  in  regard  to  this  book  we  have  pro- 
found sympathy :  "It  is  not  summation  of  doc- 
trine that  we  want.  We  have  enough  of  that. 
What  we  want  a  great  deal  more  is  something  to 
give  us  greater  breadth  of  standing  and  greater 
vitality  of  idea."  But  this  was  to  be  found  not  in 
the  interior  working  of  the  Godhead,  but  where 
he  had  always  been  looking  for  it,  —  in  a  fuller 
revelation  of  God  in  the  world,  especially  in  nature 
and  the  unfolding  of  society.  What  society  meant 
he  well  understood,  but  nature  had  not  spoken  to 
him  its  great  secret.  It  is  pathetic  to  think  of 
him  as  standing  on  the  border-land  of  evolution, 
but  not  entering  it.  Few  would  have  so  fully 
grasped  its  central  meaning,  and  so  clearly  traced 
it  to  its  divine  conclusion.  It  woidd  have  corrected 
those  aberrations  of  thought  noticeable  here  and 
there  in  his  references  to  nature,  and  turned  the 
dream  of  his  life  into  reality.  His  biographer 
speaks  of  his  interest  during  these  last  days  in  the 
revelations  of  science,  especially  the  correlation  of 
forces,  and  says :  "  He  welcomed  them,  not  only 
for  their  scientific  beauty  and  value,  but  because 
he  believed  them  to  fit  so  perfectly  into  the  wider 
science  of  life,  and  to  furnish  images  and  interpre- 
tations so  grand  in  the  higher  ranges  of  thought." 
After  the  publication  of  "  Forgiveness  and  Law  " 


HOME   LIFE  AND   LAST  DAYS  345 

in  the  spring  of  1874,  his  health  sensibly  declined, 
and  he  spent  the  summer  in  Norfolk,  a  beautiful 
hill-town  in  the  northern  part  of  the  State.  While 
here  he  wrote :  "  I  may  last  a  year,  or  even  five  as 
a  remote  possibility,  but  I  shall  never  be  girded 
again,  I  think."  He  dwelt  on  his  book,  evidently 
with  a  question  haunting  him,  yet  confident,  as  he 
wrote  to  Mr.  Chesebrough,  that  he  had  "  gained 
something  for  the  Gospel,  by  bringing  it  closer 
down  to  the  analogies  of  nature;  .  .  .  Law  and 
Commandment  pack  the  world  full  of  their  ana- 
logies, composing,  as  it  were,  their  analogue  of  the 
great  salvation."  Nothing  is  more  satisfactory  in 
these  last  days  of  Buslmell  than  his  full  fidelity  to 
the  early  thought  of  his  life ;  namely,  Nature  as 
the  analogue  of  the  Spirit.  His  life  was  rounded 
not  with  a  sleep,  but  with  a  constant  vision,  full 
of  delight  and  wonder,  of  the  world  in  which  he 
found  himself.  He  had  "  no  unrelated  facts,"  and 
nature,  with  its  laws  and  processes,  always  stood 
before  him  as  a  clear  sign  and  symbol  of  an  eter- 
nal order.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  assign  this  to 
any  school  of  thought,  philosophical  or  religious, 
for  he  did  not  come  at  it  in  that  way ;  it  belonged 
to  him  when  a  youth,  and  was  self-attested  at 
every  step  in  his  life. 

He  returned  from  Norfolk  in  the  autumn,  "  less 
renewed  than  ever  before  by  change  of  scene  and 
rest."  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  following  pen 
picture  was  drawn  by  a  minister  of  the  city :  — 

"  Who  of  us  does  not  remember  his  spare  figure, 


346  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

muscular,  active,  with  that  energetic  walk  of  his ; 
not  hasty,  indeed  leisurely,  but  with  a  kind  of 
spring  in  every  motion  ?  Who  does  not  recall  the 
iron-gray  hair,  tossed  carelessly  about ;  the  stout 
oak  stick  ;  the  garments  studiously  unprofessional, 
yet  never  careless  ;  a  happy  remove  from  both  ele- 
gance and  roughness  ?  Who  has  not  seen  that 
face,  so  full  of  expression  ;  the  skin,  of  late  so  clear 
and  transparent ;  the  eye,  large,  deep,  and  inquir- 
ing ;  the  easy  recognition,  the  flash  of  wit,  the 
blunt  reply?  These  are  all  matters  of  common 
observation  in  Hartford  ;  for  he  was  one  of  the 
notables  of  the  city;  and  when  he  walked  abroad, 
many  eyes  followed  him  with  reverential  and  eager 
looks.  How  we  shall  miss  that  marked  figure, 
that  cordial  greeting,  that  eager  look !  " 

"  God  spared  his  life  till  all  men  were  at  peace 
with  him."  It  was  not  the  peace  of  theological 
agreement  except  in  a  limited  circle,  but  a  peace 
conquered  by  a  universal  recognition  of  his  great 
intellectual  force,  and  of  the  fact  that,  whatever 
his  doctrinal  opinions  might  be,  he  was  a  power  in 
the  world  of  men,  and  an  upbuilder  in  the  king- 
dom of  God.  New  England,  however  given  to 
theology,  is  above  everything  else  practical;  and 
whenever  it  sees  a  man  serving  the  world  in  high 
ways,  it  approves  and  praises  him.  That  Hartford 
named  its  Park  for  him  was  not  because  he  secured 
it,  but  because  he  was  a  man  worthy  in  all  ways 
to  give  the  name.  But  though  at  peace,  he  could 
not  rest.     He  despised  formal  logic,  but  was  the 


HOME   LIFE  AND   LAST  DAYS  347 

slave  of  reasoning  logic.  He  would  not  have  been 
himself,  had  he  not  entered  upon  a  study  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  It  was  the  field  whither  his  path 
led  from  the  first.  He  had  dwelt  among  analo- 
gies ;  he  came  at  last  into  that  which  they  shadow 
forth.  In  this  last  year  he  projected  a  treatise  on 
"  Inspiration ;  Its  Modes  and  Uses,  whether  as  re- 
lated to  Character,  Revelation,  or  Action."  The 
plan  was  a  large  one,  but  he  could  have  made  no 
other.  Had  he  carried  it  out,  it  would  have  been 
rich  in  suggestion  and  prophetic  in  its  outlook, 
but  whether  he  would  have  compassed  the  infinite 
theme  is  doubtful.  The  world  must  wait  yet 
longer,  until  its  formal  theologies  are  sloughed  off 
or  outgrown,  and  also  until  a  study  of  man  and  of 
nature  has  furnished  sufficient  knowledge,  before 
any  man  can  duly  lay  hold  of  That  which  under- 
lies all  things,  even  if  it  be  not  the  sum  of  all 
things.  It  still  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  no 
man  can  tell  whence  it  cometh  and  whither  it 
goeth.  The  five  brief  chapters  that  were  written 
abound  in  characteristic  expressions,  but  there  is 
not  much  that  is  in  advance  of  his  second  dis- 
course in  "  Sermons  for  the  New  Life,"  or  of 
"Vicarious  Sacrifice"  (part  third,  chapter  fourth). 
The  outline  is  broad  and  clear,  but  the  writing 
shows  the  limitations  of  strength.  There  breathes 
in  it,  however,  a  spirit  of  confidence  and  reality 
that  makes  it  an  integral  part  of  all  his  previous 
work.  His  writing  ends  in  the  middle  of  a  sen- 
tence, and  after  that  we  have  only  a  few  letters 


348  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

and  the  recollections  of  friends  to  tell  us  of  the 
remainder  of  his  life.  In  the  spring  of  1875  he 
suffered  a  severe  illness,  from  which  he  only  re- 
covered sufficiently  to  drive,  and  to  walk  a  little. 
He  spent  hours  in  the  Park  watching  the  build- 
ing of  the  State  Capitol.  He  took  some  part  in 
arranging  for  a  new  edition  of  his  works,  and 
showed  Ins  kindness  and  good  sense  in  leaving  out 
"  Christ  in  Theology  "  as  of  no  consequence,  "  be- 
ing only  the  answer  I  made  to  my  accusers."  He 
insisted  that  the  order  should  be  that  in  which  he 
wrote  :  "  The  only  endurable  way  is  to  put  matters 
historically,  and  let  the  free  movement  be  always 
correcting  itself."  A  great  tenderness,  which, 
however,  was  always  in  him,  comes  out  in  his  last 
letters,  especially  in  those  to  Dr.  George  Bacon, 
whose  gentleness  and  intellectual  keenness  greatly 
won  him,  and  all  the  more  because  he  was  showing 
signs  of  the  same  malady.  The  correspondent  with 
whom  he  exchanged  more  letters  than  with  any 
one  else  outside  of  his  family  was  Dr.  Bartol.  The 
visible  sign  of  their  friendship  came  to  a  close  in 
an  exchange  of  letters  here  given,  —  eternal  but 
not  sad  farewells  :  — 

Boston,  April  8, 1875. 
My  dear  Friend,  —  I  hear  of  your  increased 
illness.  Accept  my  persuasion  of  your  everlasting 
life  and  health.  You  and  I  believe  in  the  same 
Being  and  Destiny.  Shoidd  it  be  appointed  for 
you  to  take  passage  first,  take  my  love  on  board 
the  wondrous  vessel  you  sail  in ;  and  send  such 


HOME   LIFE   AND   LAST   DAYS  349 

token  as  you  may,  back  to  my  soul,  of  your  blessed 
making  port. 

From  one  to  wliom  your  inmost  is  dear. 

C.  A.  Bartol. 

Hartford,  December  31,  1875. 

My  dear  Friend,  —  Your  very  dear  letter, 
which  came  to  me  last  spring  as  a  waft  of  fresh 
life,  when  I  was  just  climbing  up  out  of  the  river, 
has  not  been  answered  yet.  Had  it  been  less  val- 
ued, it  woidd  have  been  answered  sooner.  But 
I  have  waited  to  be  myself  again ;  for  just  to  put 
words  together  in  the  clumsy  conjunctions  of  fac- 
ulty benumbed,  brushing  off  the  dew  of  old  re- 
membrance in  words  that  I  would  like  to  answer 
fitly,  is  no  comfort  to  me  or  courtesy  to  them. 

For  the  first  six  months  I  made  only  the  slow- 
est possible  improvement ;  but  since  that  time  I 
seem  to  have  been  losing  ground  rather,  till  now 
it  begins  to  be  clear  that  your  letter  never  will  be 
answered,  unless  it  should  be  true,  in  a  sense  not 
intended,  that  I  am  now  the  "  half-way  over ; "  for 
it  really  seems  to  me  that  a  full  half  my  faculty 
—  the  better  and  more  capable  —  is  somehow  es- 
caped, and  that  only  the  duller  and  more  wooden 
part  remains.  However  this  may  be,  my  boat 
swings  drowsily,  and  I  am  no  way  disturbed  or 
put  to  the  strain  by  what  is  before  me.  Is  it  that 
I  am  believing  less  than  I  did,  or  more  ?  Is  it 
that  I  have  found  a  way  in  behind  the  visions, 
where  the  Word  of  God  is,  and,  seeing  all  in 
Him,  hold  everything  easy  and  quiet  ? 


350  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

Well,  my  dear  brother,  I  will  only  say  God 
bless  you,  and  farewell.  We  shall  touch  bottom 
here  shortly,  and  that,  I  hope,  in  righteousness. 

With  great  regard  that  cannot  die,  your  brother, 

Horace  Bushnell. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  Bushnell's  letter 
the  italicized  Word.  The  two  friends  did  not 
agree  as  to  the  person  of  Christ,  but  both  could 
say  Logos,  and  mean  essentially  the  same  thing. 
In  Bushnell  it  was  a  final  affirmation  of  the  dom- 
inant truth  of  his  life. 

Little  remains  to  be  told.  Early  in  1876  the 
illness  of  the  previous  spring  recurred,  and  he 
gradually  sank  toward  the  close.  Not  much  is 
told  us  of  what  he  said  and  did  in  those  last  days, 
but  whatever  we  have  shows  a  continuance  and 
deepening  of  his  strongest  qualities.  When  too 
weak  to  leave  his  bed,  he  kept  his  cane  near  him, 
as  a  sigT]  of  his  continued  interest  in  the  outer 
world.  Symbol  still !  A  constant  humor  over- 
spread his  talk ;  even  his  dying  was  "  play "  to 
him,  —  so  true  was  he  to  his  first  great  utter- 
ance. Of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  chapters 
of  St.  John  he  said  :  "  What  a  soft  and  sweet 
infolding  of  all  highest  things  ;  "  no  common  and 
hackneyed  thought ;  such  he  never  had.  His 
household  and  the  city  were  the  last  things  that 
engaged  his  mind.  On  the  final  day  of  full  con- 
sciousness it  was  announced  to  him  that  the  Park 
he  had  conceived  and  brought  to  realization  had 


HOME  LIFE   AND   LAST  DAYS  351 

been  named  for  him.  When  told  that  the  poor 
Irishman  who  carried  the  message  had  said,  "  This 
is  how  we  all  wanted  it  to  be,"  he  responded  with 
a  smile  that  spoke  his  gratitude  to  the  people. 
To  his  family  he  gave  his  benediction :  — 

"  Well,  now,  we  are  all  going  home  together ; 
and  I  say,  the  Lord  be  with  you  —  and  in  grace 
—  and  peace  —  and  love  —  and  that  is  the  way  I 
have  come  along  home." 

He  died  on  the  morning  of  February  17,  1876, 
at  the  age  of  seventy-four  years. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ESTIMATES 


"  He  was  a  bold  thinker  because  be  sought  for  the  truth.  Near 
the  end  of  his  life,  he  said  playfully,  to  one  of  his  friends,  as  the 
two  were  fishing  in  the  wilderness,  '  It  is  my  joy  to  think  that  I 
have  sought  most  earnestly  and  supremely  to  find  and  to  live  by 
the  truth.'  He  was  broad-minded  and  many-sided,  because  he 
would  look  at  the  truth  from  every  point  of  view.  He  was  care- 
less of  traditions,  because  he  sought  solid  standing  place  for  his 
own  feet.  He  was  independent  of  others,  because  he  must  satisfy 
the  consuming  hunger  of  his  own  soul.  When  he  found  the  truth, 
he  applied  it  fearlessly  to  himself  and  to  other  men,  to  principles, 
institutions,  and  dogmas.  He  abhorred  shams  and  conventional 
phrases  in  argument,  because  he  believed  so  strongly  in  realities. 
What  offended  others  as  irreverent,  often  —  not  always  —  betok- 
ened his  higher  reverence  for  what  he  received  as  positive  truth. 
He  was  also  manly  in  the  expression  and  defense  of  his  faith. 
However  he  might  appear  to  others,  in  the  sanctuary  of  his  inner 
self,  there  ever  dwelt  a  prayerful,  magnanimous,  loving  spirit 
toward  God  and  man."  —  President  Noah  Porter,  D.  D.,  Me- 
morial Sermon  in  Chapel  of  Yale  College,  p.  8. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ESTIMATES 

We  devote  this  chapter  to  various  tributes  and 
critical  estimates  of  Bushnell,  confident  that  it  is 
through  the  man  that  our  readers  will  get  at  the 
theologian,  or  perhaps  be  led  to  forget  the  latter 
in  the  former.  We  have  referred  in  the  previous 
chapter  to  Professor  Phelps'  article  in  the  "  Chris- 
tian Union,"  now  "  The  Outlook." 

"  Three  years  ago  it  was  my  privilege  to  spend 
the  major  part  of  a  summer  vacation  with  this  rare 
man  in  the  Green  Mountains.  Some  impressions 
which  I  received  of  his  mental  structure,  and  of 
his  theology,  and  of  his  religious  character,  deserve 
recording.  .  .  .  Few  men  have  ever  impressed  me 
as  being  so  electric  with  vitality  at  all  points  as  he 
was.  He  was  an  enthusiast  in  his  love  of  rural 
sights  and  sounds  and  sports.  In  little  things  as 
brimful  as  in  great  things,  he  seemed  the  beau 
ideal  of  a  live  man.  The  supremacy  of  mind  over 
the  body  was  something  wonderful.  .  .  .  The  abaiv- 
don  of  his  recreations  in  the  bowling-alley,  where 
he  was  a  boy  again,  and  his  theological  talks  of  a 
Sunday  evening,  told  the  same  story.  '  Dying, 
and  behold  we  live,'  recurred  once  and  again  in 
listening   to  the    conversations    in  which  he  was 


356  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

sure  to  be  the  centre  and  the  seer.  I  have  never 
heard  from  any  other  man,  in  the  same  length  of 
time,  so  much  of  original  remark.  One  could 
not  long  discourse  with  him,  even  on  the  common 
things  and  in  the  undress  of  life,  without  discov- 
ering the  secret  of  his  solitude  in  the  theological 
world.  That  solitude  was  not  in  him,  as  it  is 
in  some  men,  an  affectation  of  independence.  It 
was  in  the  original  make  of  the  man.  Nothing 
struck  him  as  it  did  the  average  of  men.  He 
took  in  all  things,  and  reflected  back  all  things,  at 
angles  of  his  own.  He  never  could  have  been  a 
partisan.  With  many  of  the  tastes  of  leadership, 
he  could  never  have  led  a  party  or  founded  a 
school.  Still  less  could  he  have  been  a  follower 
of  other  leaders. 

"  It  was  obvious  that  his  own  ideal  of  his  life's 
work  was  that  of  discovery.  When  he  had  ex- 
hausted his  power  of  discovery,  —  his  '  insight,'  as 
he  was  fond  of  calling  it,  —  he  had  lost  some  of  the 
prime  qualities  of  power  in  communication. 

"  On  the  whole,  he  made  upon  me  the  impres- 
sion of  a  mind  still  in  movement  on  the  central 
theme  of  the  Christian  faith ;  not  doubtful  so  far 
as  he  had  discovered,  yet  not  resting  in  ultimate 
convictions.  .  .  .  He  held  himself  to  be  substan- 
tially at  one  with  the  great  body  of  the  church  in 
all  that  they  really  believed  of  the  '  faith  in  Christ.' 
Yet  whether  he  was  so  or  not  concerned  him  little. 
Truth  lay  between  him  and  God,  not  between  him 
and   the    church.     The  reception  of  it  by  other 


ESTIMATES  357 

minds  was  their  affair,  not  his.  Such,  as  nearly  as 
I  could  gather  it  from  his  fragmentary  conversa- 
tions, was  his  theory  of  the  true  work  of  a  theo- 
logian ;  rather  of  his  work  as  a  theologian ;  for 
he  was  very  gentle  in  his  criticisms  of  the  work  of 
other  men.  He  had  his  own  telescope,  and  they 
had  theirs ;  that  the  instruments  differed  was  no 
evidence  that  both  might  not  be  true  ;  the  field 
of  vision  was  very  broad.  I  am  confident  that 
he  has  gone  from  us  with  no  such  idea  of  his  own 
dissent  from  the  faith  of  his  brethren  as  they  have. 
And  the  sense  of  that  dissent,  I  must  confess, 
grew  dim  in  my  own  mind  when  I  came  near  to 
the  inner  spirit  of  the  man.  That  was  beauti- 
fully and  profoundly  Christ-like,  if  that  of  unin- 
spired man  ever  was.  Be  the  forms  of  his  belief 
what  they  may  have  been,  he  was  eminently  a  man 
of  God.  Christ  was  a  reality  to  him.  Christ  lived 
in  him  to  a  degree  realized  only  in  the  life  of 
devout  believers.  I  had  heard  him  criticised  as 
brusque  in  manner,  even  rude  in  his  controversial 
dissents.  Scarcely  a  shade  of  that  kind  was  per- 
ceptible in  him  at  that  time.  The  gentleness  of 
womanhood  breathed  in  his  few  and  cautious  ex- 
pressions of  Christian  feeling.  The  charity  of  a 
large  fraternal  heart  characterized  his  judgments 
of  men.  His  whole  bearing  was  that  of  one  whom 
time  and  suffering  had  advanced  far  on  towards 
the  closing  stages  of  earthly  discipline.  .  .   . 

"  What  shall  we  say  of  such  men  in  our  theolo- 
gical classifications  ?     Where  shall  we  locate  them 


358  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

in  the  schools  ?  It  will  never  do  to  set  them 
aside  as  heretics,  and  leave  them  there.  They  are 
not  heretics,  in  any  invidious  sense  of  the  title. 
If  faith  means  character,  if  '  the  faith  in  Christ ' 
be  anything  more  than  the  most  lifeless  of  ossified 
forms,  such  men  are  believers  beyond  the  depth 
of  venerable  creeds.  So  much  the  worse  for  our- 
selves, and  for  the  formulas  which  we  revere, 
will  it  be,  in  the  ultimate  and  decisive  judgment 
of  mankind,  if  our  faith  cannot  find  a  place  for 
such  believers  near  to  our  hearts,  because  near  to 
Christ." 

Professor  Phelps'  letter  is  of  interest  as  coming 
from  one  of  pronounced  orthodoxy.  Dr.  Bartol's, 
which  follows,  shows  how  well  the  "  comprehen- 
siveness "  of  Bushnell  took  in  both  men. 

Dear  Mrs.  Bushnell,  —  No  images  and  re- 
collections of  more  delight  could  return  to  me  than 
are  suggested  by  your  note.  The  first  I  saw  of 
Dr.  Bushnell  was  in  the  pulpit  of  Park  Street 
Church,  as  he  delivered  his  sermon  on  "  Barbar- 
ism the  First  Danger ;  "  and  I  think  he  was 
the  earliest  to  make  a  picture  of  what  America 
showed  of  barbarity,  although  his  canvas  was 
copied,  and  this  feature  of  our  society  and  institu- 
tions became  a  brand  more  conspicuous,  especially 
in  the  matter  of  slavery,  as  Sumner  described  it  in 
after-time.  The  preacher  seemed  a  real  divine  and 
diviner,  applying  great  principles  to  actual  things 
with  matchless  sagacity,  and  a  force  too  great  for 


ESTIMATES  359 

Satan  himself  to  ward.  Such  was  the  revela- 
tion in  him  of  power,  both  to  see  and  to  say,  that 
this  Boston  community,  which  then  so  moved  all 
together  it  could  carry  but  one  rider  at  a  time, 
was  eager  as  one  man  for  his  voice,  and  willing  to 
travel  at  his  touch.  Accordingly,  he  was  sought 
with  repeated  invitations  from  Liberal  quarters  to 
expound  Orthodox  views.  The  Divinity  School 
in  Harvard  University,  and  the  college  proper, 
begged  him  to  fill  special  anniversary  occasions 
in  their  service  ;  and  certainly  his  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
oration  in  Cambridge,  for  originality,  simplicity, 
and  splendor,  either  as  spoken  or  on  the  printed 
page,  has  scarce,  if  ever,  been  surpassed  in  the 
land.  I  soon  found,  in  the  close  personal  acquaint- 
ance which  grew  between  us,  that  all  his  public 
ability  had  its  roots  in  as  rare  a  private  worth. 
Never  were  honesty  and  ingenuity  in  any  intellect 
more  singularly  blended,  and,  as  it  were,  chemi- 
cally combined.  Born  as  he  was  to  a  creed,  he 
could  take  nothing  on  trust.  Outward  authority, 
for  a  mind  so  active  and  penetrating,  could  never 
suffice.  Necessity  was  laid  on  his  nature  to  ration- 
alize every  doctrine  or  form.  What  he  could  not 
make  acceptable  to  sound  judgment  and  conscience, 
he  would  either  waive  or  drop.  He  told  me  he 
had  many  questions  hanging  on  pegs,  to  take  down 
in  turn  as  their  thne  should  come.  He  laid  out 
his  best  theological  strength  to  prove  that  no  fit 
objection  could  arise  to  the  old  articles  of  Trinity 
and  Atonement,  rightly  understood.     I  found  him 


360  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

never  a  Calvinist.  He  revolted  from  the  notion, 
now  so  much  discussed,  of  everlasting  punishment. 
The  great  humanity  of  his  heart  could  in  no  sec- 
tarian stress  be  made  a  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  a 
cruel  God,  which  was  no  God  to  him.  His  vari- 
ous essays  on  "  Christian  Nurture,"  perhaps  his 
most  important  contribution  to  the  Church,  have 
the  true  relish  of  that  paternal  goodness  which  is 
the  richest  common  property  of  God  and  man. 
But  his  keen  discrimination  in  defense  of  opinions 
he  would  retain  as  essential  to  Christian  faith  is, 
since  the  days  of  Jonathan  Edwards,  without  a 
parallel.  Possibly  his  explanations  sometimes,  like 
the  subtilties  of  German  metaphysics,  escape  the 
perception  of  the  general  reader,  diverge  from  the 
track  of  the  common  sense,  and  are  acute  to  ex- 
cess. As  we  differed  on  points  of  dogma,  it  is 
natural  for  me  to  suppose  that  where  I  could  not 
be  persuaded,  he  failed.  But  his  piety  was  pro- 
founder  than  even  his  dialectic  skill.  When  he 
was  my  guest,  it  was  some  book  of  mystic  devo- 
tion he  chose,  for  recreation,  to  take  up.  It  was 
no  weak  votary  that  religion  had  in  this  man.  He 
had  it  in  him  to  be  an  artist,  architect,  road- 
builder,  and  city-builder,  as  well  as  scholar ;  and 
well  is  your  Hartford  park  called  by  his  name.  I 
have  never  known  faculties  so  manifold  in  better 
order  and  under  discipline  more  strict,  or  in  evo- 
lution more  effective  and  exact.  They  were  the 
Lord's  armory,  in  mighty  and  unwearied  use  for 
his  cause.     In  our  many  walks,  nothing,  in  streets 


ESTIMATES  361 

or  buildings,  Common  or  Public  Garden,  but  was 
caught  by  his  eye  and  had  improvements  suggested 
from  his  thought.  In  conversation,  never  was  wit 
so  sharp  and  more  kind.  In  hours  of  weakness 
and  ill-health,  with  his  chronic  cough,  there  was 
wondrous  content,  always  good  cheer  and  to  spare. 
An  ill-tempered  or  envious  word  never  fell  from 
his  lips  on  my  ear ;  and  that  eye  was  so  piercing 
and  benign,  I  feel  its  admonition  and  blessing  on 
me  still !  The  countenance,  in  its  inward  expres- 
siveness, strongly  resembled  that  of  Channing.  It 
had  a  play  and  vivacity  all  its  own. 

Playfulness  I  should  call  one  of  Dr.  Bushnell's 
marked  traits,  seldom,  if  ever,  exploding  aloud.  A 
native  refinement  kept  him  from  public  shouting 
or  private  noise.  But  some  ghost  of  a  smile  seemed 
ever  to  haunt  his  face.  If  the  remark  was  inci- 
sive which  he  was  about  to  make,  the  wreath  of 
good-humor  was  always  the  more  protective  and 
soft.  The  geniality  began  in  his  mind,  and  went 
through  the  expression  of  his  features  into  his 
unconscious  manner  and  slightest  gesture.  Indeed, 
it  was  his  very  atmosphere.  The  boy  never  quite 
left  the  man.  Something  even  of  the  look  of  the 
babe  was  in  the  virile  glance  and  tone.  We  threw 
stones  off  the  shore,  to  see  which  of  us  could  send 
them  farthest  or  skip  them  best.  He  took  me,  one 
day,  from  his  own  house  to  Talcott  mountain ;  and 
no  lad  of  fifteen  was  ever  more  decidedly  out  on 
an  excursion,  and  to  have,  innocently,  a  good  time. 
A  wild  nature  in  him,  so  sweet  and  good  it  would 


362  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

have  been  a  loss  wholly  to  overcome  it  with  any 
grace,  leaped  like  a  fountain  and  ran  like  a  roe. 
.  .  .  Riding  with  him  one  day  in  the  cars  on  the 
way  to  Nahant,  he  left  me  awhile  with  a  clergy- 
man, rather  of  his  own  way  of  thinking,  who  very 
pleasantly  tried  to  convert  me.  When  Bushnell 
came  back,  he  inquired  of  the  reverend  minister, 
"  What  have  you  been  doing  with  my  friend  Bar- 
tol?  "  "I  have  not  been  doing  anything  but  lay- 
ing out  the  Presbyterian  creed  to  him,"  was  the 
reply.  "  You  mean  that  you  have  been  putting  a 
shroud  on  it,  I  suppose  ;  for  that 's  what  they  do 
when  they  lay  things  out,"  rejoined  Bushnell,  with 
that  laugh  winch  always  began  in  the  gray  eyes, 
and  only  left  its  last  audible  ripple,  like  a  wave 
striking  the  shore,  in  his  mouth.  "  Can  a  Calvin- 
ist  be  a  Christian  ?  "  one  evening,  in  company  in 
my  parlor,  Father  Taylor,  the  Bethel  pastor,  asked 
him.  "  Of  course  he  can,  and  is,"  very  soberly 
he  answered.  "  But,"  said  Taylor,  "  what  if  the 
Lord  some  day  should  come  round  to  these  saints 
in  heaven,  put  there  by  arbitrary  election  and  no 
merit  of  their  own,  and  propose  to  turn  that  end 
of  the  stick  round,  by  his  own  equally  pure  will, 
into  the  other  place,  would  they  be  just  as  good 
Christians  then  ?  "  Bushnell  responded,  with  that 
flash  of  sympathy  and  twinkling  glance,  which 
showed  that  no  denominational  considerations  hin- 
dered his  appreciation  of  a  fair  hit,  at  whomso- 
ever's  cost  the  jest  might  be.  His  tenderness  of 
heart  blended  and  was  wrought   into  his  strong 


ESTIMATES  363 

sense,  for  a  lightning-rod  to  carry  harmless  to  the 
ground  what  might  else  become  a  crashing  and 
destructive  bolt  of  wrath.  During  the  controversy, 
starting  at  Hartford  because  he  had  brought  the 
ordinary  construction  of  total  depravity,  election, 
and  regeneration  into  doubt,  which  dates  the  truly 
romantic  period  of  his  history,  I  admired  the  pun- 
gency, turned  by  love  into  utter  gentleness,  .  .  . 
with  which  he  said  he  desired  to  put  his  opponent 
into  "  an  attitude  of  comprehensive  repugnance," 
meaning  that  in  the  strife  was  no  personal  hate. 
I  think  he  had  no  capacity,  with  all  his  eminent 
powers,  for  enmity.  Goodness  and  wisdom  were 
the  elements  that  amounted  to  genius  in  him,  by 
both  being  so  great.  He  preached  hi  my  pulpit 
on  "  Unconscious  Influence."  He  exemplifies  his 
own  doctrine,  at  least  for  his  and  your  friend, 

C.  A.  Bartol. 

Of  like  interest  is  a  letter  written  to  Mrs. 
Bushnell  by  the  Right  Rev.  Thomas  M.  Clark, 
D.  D.,  bishop  of  Rhode  Island,  who  was  rector  of 
a  church  in  Hartford  for  several  years  during 
Bushnell's  pastorate. 

Providence,  R.  I.,  April  26,  1878. 
My  dear  Madam,  —  About  twenty-five  years 
ago  I  had  the  privilege  of  knowing  your  husband 
in  Hartford.  No  one  could  be  brought  into  fre- 
quent contact  with  him,  and  not  feel  that  he  was 
in  the  presence  of  a  man  born  to  lead  and  not  to 


364  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

follow  the  thought  of  his  times.  He  never  seemed 
to  talk  with  the  view  of  impressing  you  with  a 
sense  of  his  mental  or  spiritual  superiority  ;  neither 
was  there  in  him  any  affectation  of  humility  or 
habit  of  self-depreciation.  He  could  not  help  being 
conscious  of  his  own  peculiar  powers ;  but  one  who 
heard  him  chatting  in  the  bookstore  (his  favor- 
ite lounging-place  after  the  work  of  the  morning 
was  over),  with  all  sorts  of  people,  upon  all  sorts 
of  subjects,  —  the  news  of  the  day,  the  doings  of 
public  men,  the  affairs  of  the  city,  in  which  he 
took  a  special  interest,  politics,  farming,  mechan- 
ics, inventions,  books,  or  whatever  else  might  turn 
up, — would  probably  go  away  without  suspecting 
that  he  had  been  in  the  presence  of  one  of  the 
profoundest  thinkers  our  land  has  ever  produced. 
No  one  could  help  being  interested  in  what  he 
said ;  for  although  he  was  not  much  given  to  wit 
and  humor,  he  had  a  clear,  incisive,  original  way 
of  putting  things  that  could  not  fail  to  attract 
attention.   .  .  . 

Few  men  ever  enjoyed  the  art  of  mental  crea- 
tion more  thorougldy.  While  he  was  writing  his 
great  work  on  "  The  Supernatural,"  I  used  to 
visit  him  at  his  study  on  Monday  mornings,  for 
the  purpose  of  hearing  him  read  over  the  chapters 
which  he  had  written  during  the  previous  week. 
It  was  to  me  a  rare  intellectual  treat,  and  I  wish 
that  I  had  noted  down  at  the  time  some  of  the 
comments  with  which  he  illustrated  his  work.  I 
also  wish  that  I  could  have  sketched  his  picture 


ESTIMATES  365 

as  he  sat  there  in  his  chair,  somewhat  uneasily,  as 
was  his  wont,  with  his  flashing  dark  eye  and  mo- 
bile face,  that  seemed  to  respond  so  vividly  to  the 
thoughts  that  flashed  from  his  brain.  When  speak- 
ing under  high  excitement,  his  whole  frame  was  set 
in  motion,  and  he  seemed  to  gesticulate  with  all 
parts  of  his  body.  I  have  heard  him  speak  with 
some  contempt  of  the  technical  graces  of  oratory, 
and  yet  he  was  a  very  effective  speaker,  —  all  the 
more  so  because  he  evidently  forgot  all  about 
externals  in  the  deep  absorption  of  his  subject. 

It  would  be  useless,  in  such  a  brief  sketch  as 
this,  to  attempt  anything  like  a  thorough  analysis 
of  Dr.  Bushnell's  mental  characteristics,  and  it  is 
a  work  that  would  require  an  abler  pen  than  mine. 
I  will  simply  note  down  a  few  things,  as  they 
occur  to  me,  among  the  general  impressions  which 
my  former  intercourse  with  him  has  left  imprinted 
on  my  mind.  While  he  was  etymologically  a  radi- 
cal thinker,  inasmuch  as  he  was  accustomed  to  go 
down  to  the  roots  of  things,  and  his  temperament 
always  urged  him  forward  in  the  pursuit  of  truth, 
his  instincts  were  very  conservative.  He  was  very 
impatient  of  shams,  and,  at  the  same  time,  very 
cautious  in  exposing  them,  lest  he  might  do  dam- 
age to  the  truth  of  which  they  professed  to  be  the 
presentment.  This  conservative  instinct  sometimes 
led  him  to  qualify  his  positions  in  such  a  degree 
as  might  seem  to  weaken  their  force,  and  he  would 
hold  himself  in  check,  and  give  prominence  to  the 
arguments  of  his  adversary,  in  order  that  he  might 


3G6  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

not  appear  to  disturb  the  equilibrium  of  truth. 
By  some  he  was  regarded  as  a  subverter  of  old 
ideas,  and  even  as  a  reckless  and  unchastened  in- 
novator and  heretic ;  but  he  was  really  very  ten- 
der of  all  received  dogma,  and  never  broke  away 
from  the  standards  except  under  moral  compulsion. 
I  once  told  him  that  I  thought  of  preaching  a 
course  of  sermons  on  a  topic  which,  twenty-five 
years  ago,  we  had  not  learned  to  handle  as  intelli- 
gently and  freely  as  we  do  now  ;  and  I  shall  never 
forget  how  he  brought  down  his  hand  with  an  em- 
phatic gesture  as  he  said,  "  I  would  not  preach  a 
sermon  on  that  subject  for  ten  thousand  dollars !  "  1 
Not  that  he  was  afraid  to  do  it,  but  he  thought 
the  time  had  not  come  for  its  thorough  ventilation  ; 
and  if  he  once  threw  open  the  door  of  his  mind,  it 
must  be  to  let  the  wind  circulate  freely. 

I  always  thought  that  he  was  more  sensitive  to 
criticism,  and  suffered  more  under  reproach,  than 
most  people  supposed ;  with  his  organization,  mar- 
tyrdom in  any  form  would  have  been  a  peculiarly 
severe  ordeal.  He  never  coveted  reproach  or  pain, 
and  yet  he  would  have  gone  to  the  stake  rather 
than  sacrifice  his  convictions,  —  perhaps  not  with 
a  loud  song  on  his  lips,  but  none  the  less  firmly 
for  that.   .   .   . 

Dr.  Bushnell  was  a  man  of   marvelous  versa- 

1  Probably  a  subject  pertaining  to  eschatology.  Once  when 
asked  why  he  had  not  preached  a  sermon  on  the  Resurrection,  he 
said  :  "  I  do  not  wish  to  throw  away  my  influence  on  other  sub- 
jects by  preaching  on  that." 


ESTIMATES  367 

tility.  Those  who  know  him  only  by  his  theologi- 
cal writings  have  no  conception  of  the  range  of 
his  mind  and  the  variety  of  subjects  that  he  had 
investigated.  He  was  skilled  in  mechanics,  and 
has  given  the  world  some  inventions  of  his  own. 
The  house  in  which  I  once  lived  was  warmed  by 
a  furnace  which  he  devised,  when  such  domestic 
improvements  were  comparatively  new.  He  could 
plan  a  house,  or  lay  out  a  park,  or  drain  a  city 
better  than  many  of  our  experts.  He  was  as 
much  at  home  in  talking  with  the  rough  guides  of 
the  Adirondacks  as  he  was  in  discussing  metaphy- 
sics with  theologians  in  council.  If  he  had  gone 
into  civil  life,  he  would  have  taught  our  public 
men  some  lessons  in  political  economy  which  they 
greatly  need  to  know.  If  he  had  been  a  medical 
man,  he  would  have  struck  at  the  roots  of  disease, 
and  discovered  remedies  as  yet  unknown.  .   .  . 

Dr.  Bushnell  had  a  large  amount  of  individu- 
ality ;  the  man  impressed  you,  and  it  would  have 
required  an  effort  to  insult  him  or  trifle  with  him. 
He  had  a  way  of  puncturing  bubbles  which  might 
well  make  certain  people  shy  of  him.  There  was 
nothing  in  his  manner  that  seemed  to  claim  ven- 
eration, as  is  sometimes  the  case  with  "  distin- 
guished divines,"  —  no  majestic  sweep  of  the  hand, 
or  orotund  proclamation  of  wise  sayings,  or  assump- 
tion of  superiority  in  any  form ;  but  you  felt  your- 
self to  be  in  the  presence  of  a  real  man,  and  a 
man  of  bulk,  —  not  large  in  stature,  but  great  in 
spirit. 


368  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

I  hardly  need  to  add  that  he  was  a  devout  dis- 
ciple and  believer,  —  not  one  who  merely  specu- 
lated about  religion,  but  also  received  it  into  his 
heart,  and  lived  accordingly.  He  had  all  the 
spiritual  power,  as  well  as  the  far-sightedness,  of  a 
prophet ;  everything  pertaining  to  God  and  Christ 
and  immortality  burnt  under  his  touch ;  it  was  a 
live  coal  that  he  placed  upon  the  altar.  However 
he  might  speculate,  he  never  allowed  anything  to 
come  as  a  veil  between  him  and  his  Saviour ;  he 
saw  eye  to  eye,  and  knew  whom  he  believed. 
Very  respectfully  and  truly  yours, 

Thomas  M.  Clakk. 

It  has  been  a  special  characteristic  of  the  New 
England  ministers  that  they  have  fostered  all  the 
interests  of  the  towns  in  which  they  are  settled. 
The  separation  of  Church  and  State  was  only  for- 
mal until  the  churches  of  the  "  Standing  Order " 
were  swamped  in  a  multitude  of  sects,  and  the  min- 
istry lost  its  permanence  and  became  a  migration 
from  parish  to  parish.  Before  this  change,  the 
minister  was  the  leading  man  in  the  community, 
and  shaped  its  affairs  often  down  to  the  most  prac- 
tical details.  Dr.  Bushnell  was  a  notable  illustra- 
tion of  this  clerical  supremacy.  Its  chief  sign  in 
him  is  the  Public  Park,  crowned  by  the  State  Capi- 
tol. He  early  noticed  in  the  centre  of  the  city  a 
territory  of  about  thirty-five  acres  that  had  never 
been  put  to  good  use,  and  was  a  deformity  in  shape 
and  occupancy,  and  after  years  of  effort  carried 


ESTIMATES  369 

out  his  plan  of  transforming  it  into  a  park.  The 
following  action  of  the  City  Government,  taken 
just  before  his  death,  tells  the  full  story  of  his  long 
strife  :  — 

"  Whereas,  The  park  laid  out  by  the  city  in 
1854  has  not  received  any  name  ; 

"  And  whereas,  The  plan  of  using  the  land  ly- 
ing between  Elm  Street  and  the  Little  River  for  a 
public  park  owes  its  origin  and  successful  execu- 
tion, in  a  large  degree,  to  the  foresight,  to  the  able 
and  earnest  advocacy,  and  the  influence,  freely  and 
with  generous  persistence  exerted  in  public,  in  pri- 
vate, and  through  the  press,  of  Horace  Bushnell ; 

"  And  whereas,  It  is  wise  and  fitting  that  the 
name  of  a  citizen  standing  foremost  among  those 
who  have  achieved  enduring  fame  in  the  field  of 
intellectual  effort  should  be  associated  with  the 
public  works  of  the  city,  in  which  Ins  manhood's 
life  has  been  spent,  to  which  he  has  been  devotedly 
attached,  and  for  whose  adornment,  improvement, 
and  general  good  he  has  been  ever  ready  to  give 
his  time,  his  influence,  and  the  riches  of  his  genius  ; 

"  Now,  therefore,  in  recognition  of  a  reputation 
in  whose  honors  the  city  of  his  adoption  shares, 
and  of  labors  for  the  public  good  whose  results  will 
add  to  the  happiness  and  welfare  of  every  citizen  ; 

"  Resolved,  That  the  public  park  now  commonly 
called  '  The  Park '  be  and  hereby  is  named  '  Bush- 
nell Park.'  " 

But  the  creation  of  the  park  was  not  his  great- 
est service  to  Hartford.     He  himself   treated   it 


370  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

even  playfully.  When  asked  where  he  would 
have  his  statue  placed,  he  replied,  "  Under  the 
bridge."  Rev.  Joseph  Twichell,  a  warmly  loved 
friend  and  his  frequent  companion  in  the  Adiron- 
dack^ in  summer  vacations,  says  that  "  Bushnell 
lies  back  of  all  that  is  best  in  the  city.  .  .  .  He 
quickened  the  men  who  have  made  Hartford  what 
it  is.  .  .  .  After  hearing  him  on  Sunday,  men 
would  say,  '  I  've  heard  a  great  sermon,  and  I  'm 
going  to  make  my  week  mean  something.'  "  Mr. 
Austin  Dunham,  a  prominent  citizen,  said  that  "  in 
nothing  had  Dr.  Bushnell  done  so  much  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  city  as  in  making  men  ;  he  taught 
them  to  think  large  thoughts  and  to  use  their 
minds."  His  relation  to  his  city  is  well  described 
by  Rev.  N.  H.  Egleston  in  a  letter  to  the  "  Hart- 
ford Courant :  "  — 

"  It  is  his  distinction  that  not  only  by  an  un- 
equaled  professional  eminence  has  he  benefited 
this  place  and  forever  linked  its  name  with  his 
own,  but  by  the  force  of  his  genius  he  has  been 
a  benefit  to  the  city  in  so  many  and  such  impor- 
tant relations.  What  interest  of  Hartford  is  not 
to-day  indebted  to  him  as  a  benefactor  ?  Do  we 
speak  of  schools  ?  The  fathers  of  those  who  are 
now  enjoying  our  unsurpassed  appliances  for  pub- 
lic and  general  education  know  well  that  the  city 
is  indebted  to  no  one  more  than  to  Dr.  Bushnell 
for  the  new  impulse  given  to  its  schools,  now  more 
than  twenty-five  years  ago,  which  lifted  them  to 
their  present  grade  of  excellence.     Do  we  speak 


ESTIMATES  371 

of  taste  and  culture  ?  Who  has  been  a  nobler 
example  and  illustration  of  both,  or  who  has  by 
his  just  criticism  and  various  instructions  so  aided 
in  their  development  ?  .  .  .  And  so,  if  we  turn  to 
the  business  interests  of  the  city,  who  of  its  older 
residents  does  not  remember  how,  years  ago,  at  a 
time  when  the  impression  had  become  prevalent 
that  Hartford  had  reached  its  growth,  —  that  it 
was  declining  while  other  cities  were  outstripping 
it  in  trade  and  business,  and  the  younger  and 
more  enterprising  were  beginning  to  remove  to 
other  and,  seemingly,  more  promising  fields  of 
activity,  —  Dr.  Bushnell  lifted  himself  up  in  that 
crisis,  and  asserted  not  only  the  ability  but  the 
duty  of  the  city  to  prosper,  and  how,  as  it  may  be 
truly  said,  he  woke  the  city  to  new  life,  and  gave 
an  impulse  to  its  business  interests  which  has  been 
felt  to  this  day  ?  And  so,  not  to  speak  of  other 
illustrations  of  the  fact,  this  many-sided  man  has 
made  himself  felt  in  this  city  in  every  direction, 
and  in  respect  to  every  worthy  calling  and  inter- 
est, as  no  other  man  has  ever  done.  Hartford  has 
felt  him,  feels  him  to-day  everywhere.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  another  instance  in  our  own  his- 
tory is  to  be  found  of  a  man  impressing  himself  in 
so  many  ways,  and  with  such  force,  upon  a  place 
of  any  such  size  and  importance  as  this.  Hart- 
ford is  largely  what  he  has  made  it." 

The  following  letter,  of  recent  date,  from  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Washington  Gladden,  reveals  an  even  more 
interesting  side  of  Bushnell' s  history,  by  showing 


372  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

how  lie  stood  related  to  an  entire  generation  of 
young  ministers  in  New  England.  It  is  no  exagger- 
ation to  say  that  had  it  not  been  for  the  relief  he 
brought  to  them  on  theological  questions,  many  of 
the  ablest  young  men  in  Congregational  pulpits 
could  not  or  would  not  have  remained  in  them :  — 
"  My  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Bushnell  began  in 
the  early  summer  of  1867.  Not  long  before  that, 
a  young  minister  in  Illinois  had  been  refused  or- 
dination because,  as  the  council  reported,  he  was 
tainted  with  Bushnellism,  whereupon  I  wrote  to 
'  The  Independent,'  defining  Dr.  BushnelTs  theory 
of  the  Atonement,  as  I  understood  it,  and  saying 
that  if  that  was  heresy,  I  wished  to  be  considered 
as  a  heretic.  The  letter  gratified  Dr.  Bushnell, 
and  he  wrote  me  a  few  very  hearty  words  about 
it.  I  was  soon  to  be  installed  as  the  pastor  of  the 
First  Congregational  Church  in  North  Adams, 
and  I  wrote,  inviting  him,  if  his  health  were  equal 
to  the  task,  to  come  and  preach  the  installation 
sermon.  At  first  he  hesitated,  fearing  his  pre- 
sence might  compromise  me,  but  I  reassured  him, 
and  he  came  and  spent  about  a  week  with  me. 
The  sermon  was  that  noble  one  on  '  The  Gosjiel 
of  the  Face '  in  '  Sermons  on  Living  Subjects.' 
I  think  it  was  then  first  delivered ;  he  was  to  use 
it  a  little  later,  on  a  similar  occasion.  He  was  at 
that  time  quite  frail ;  his  cough  was  often  exas- 
perating, and  he  spoke  with  some  effort,  but  the 
vigor  and  pungency  of  the  thought  and  the  dignity 
and  sweetness  of  the  personality  made  a  profound 


ESTIMATES  373 

impression  upon  the  audience.  I  shall  never  for- 
get the  electric  tingle  that  went  with  some  of  his 
quiet  sentences  :  '  Fire  is  the  greatest  analyzer  in 
the  world,  and  its  product  —  ashes.  Analysis  re- 
quires dead  subjects,  but  the  Gospel  is  not  dead 
and  ought  not  to  be  killed.'  '  One  may  preach 
a  formula  and  know  nothing  about  Christ,  nothing 
but  what  is  verbally  stuck  in  his  head  or  pigeon- 
holed in  his  memory.  But  the  real  Christ  is  what 
a  man  may  be ;  what  he  shall  signify  in  a  man's 
heart;  what  he  is  in  feeling  and  faith  and  guilt 
and  bondage  and  everlasting  hope  and  liberty  that 
makes  a  sinner  free.  It  wants  a  Christed  man  to 
know  who  Christ  really  is,  and  show  him  forth 
with  a  meaning.'  The  ministers  present  were 
not  all  quite  free  from  suspicion  of  Dr.  Bushnell, 
but  as  for  the  sermon,  like  the  Sanhedrim  con- 
fronting the  good  deeds  at  the  Beautiful  Gate, 
'they  could  say  nothing  against  it.'  President 
Hopkins  was  one  of  the  most  attentive  listeners. 
*  Is  not  that  the  Gospel  ? '  some  one  asked  him. 
'  Nothing  else  is  the  Gospel,'  was  Ins  quick  reply. 

"  In  the  days  that  he  tarried  at  the  parsonage 
among  the  Berkshire  Hills  we  had  many  pleasant 
walks  and  drives  together ;  the  mountain  air  in- 
vigorated him,  and  the  mountain  scenery  stimu- 
lated him,  and  the  wit  and  eloquence  of  his  talk 
was  memorable.  I  ought  to  have  written  down 
those  talks  while  they  were  fresh ;  they  are  mostly 
gone  from  me  now,  and  I  shall  not  bring  them 
back  until  I  see  him  again.     His  presence  in  the 


374  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

house  was  a  benediction ;  we  were  young  house- 
keepers, and  all  was  simple  and  primitive,  but  he 
fell  into  our  ways,  and  was  as  much  at  home  with 
us  as  he  would  have  been  in  a  palace.  He  was  up 
early  in  the  summer  mornings  and  out  for  a  walk ; 
once  when  he  came  in,  he  said,  '  I  've  found  the 
place  for  your  park,'  and  exhorted  me  to  go  to 
work  at  once  and  get  the  town  to  secure  the  site. 
It  was  indeed  the  very  place  for  a  park,  and  if  the 
thriving  city  of  North  Adams  could  have  it  now, 
it  woidd  be  a  boon  to  her  people.  But  my  faith 
was  not  strong  enough,  and  North  Adams  lacks 
its  Bushnell  Park.  A  year  or  two  later  he  came 
again  and  spent  a  few  days  with  me  at  the  time 
of  the  Williams  College  commencement.  He  was 
now  still  more  enfeebled  in  body,  but  his  mind 
was  as  wakeful  and  alert  as  ever.  All  sorts  of  in- 
tellectual achievements  were  thronging  his  imagina- 
tion ;  how  many  were  the  things  he  wanted  to  do ! 
To  the  larger  tasks  he  knew  himself  to  be  unequal, 
but  he  turned  from  them  with  no  deplo rings ;  he 
could  wait !  Sermon-making  was  not  yet  quite 
beyond  him,  though  he  sometimes  thought  so. 
Themes  for  sermons  were  always  coming,  like 
doves  to  his  windows.  '  I  've  got  a  subject  for 
you,'  he  said  one  morning  at  breakfast,  — '  "  Our 
Advantage  in  Being  Finite ;  "  will  you  write  on 
that  some  day  ? '  It  matters  very  little  whether 
I  did  or  not ;  for  strength  was  given  him  afterward 
to  beat  out  the  fine  gold  whose  nuggets  he  had 
been  gathering  in  the  mountain  twilight.     In  the 


ESTIMATES  375 

*  Sermons  on  Living  Subjects,'  it  bears  tbe  pa- 
thetic annotation,  '  Written  for  Yale  College 
Chapel,  but  not  delivered.' 

"  To  tell  the  story  of  my  indebtedness  to  this 
great  friend  would  take  more  room  than  is  left 
here,  but  I  must  say  that  I  could  not  have  re- 
mained in  the  ministry,  an  honest  man,  if  it  had 
not  been  for  him.  The  time  came,  long  before  I 
saw  him,  when  the  legal  or  forensic  theories  of  the 
Atonement  were  not  true  for  me ;  if  I  had  not 
found  his  '  God  in  Christ,'  and  '  Christ  in  The- 
ology,' I  must  have  stopped  preaching.  Dr. 
Bushnell  gave  me  a  moral  theology  and  helped  me 
to  believe  in  the  justice  of  God.  If  I  have  had 
any  gospel  to  preach,  during  the  last  thirty-five 
years,  it  is  because  he  led  me  into  the  light  and 
joy  of  it." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL 


"  Dr.  Bushnell  had  a  creative  mind  of  a  high  order,  striking 
out  a  path  of  his  own,  an  innovator,  indeed,  turning  the  mind 
of  the  churches  into  new  directions,  in  order  that  they  might  es- 
cape the  wearisome  confusion  hred  by  the  old  controversies,  and 
yet  aware  also  that  the  full  significance  of  the  old  doctrines  had 
not  been  measured.  If  he  did  not  always  solve  the  issues  which 
he  raised,  yet  he  never  failed  to  shed  light  upon  them,  revealing 
by  his  personal  disclosure  of  his  own  religious  need  the  positive 
directions  which  theology  must  take."  —  Professor  A.  V.  G. 
Allen,  D.  D.,  Religious  Progress,  p.  11. 

"  I  'm  apt  to  think  the  man 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God  and  secrets  of  his  empire, 
Would  speak  but  love,  —  with  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  things 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  theology." 

Bishop  Gambold. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE   WORK   OF   BUSHNELL 

In  his  old  age,  Bushnell  seemed  to  have  enter- 
tained the  thought  of  writing  an  autobiography 
under  the  title  "  God's  Way  with  a  Soul,"  hut 
the  following  quotation  is  nearly  half  of  the  few 
"  dimly  penciled  "  lines  left  by  him. 

"  My  figure  in  this  world  has  not  been  great,  but 
I  have  had  a  great  experience.  I  have  never  been 
a  great  agitator,  never  pulled  a  wire  to  get  the 
will  of  men,  never  did  a  politic  thing.  It  was 
not  for  this  reason,  but  because  I  was  looked  upon 
as  a  singularity,  —  not  exactly  sane,  perhaps,  in 
many  things,  —  that  I  was  almost  never  a  president 
or  vice-president  of  any  society,  and  almost  never 
on  a  committee.  Take  the  report  of  my  doings 
on  the  platform  of  the  world's  business,  and  it 
is  naught.  I  have  filled  no  place  at  all.  But  still 
it  has  been  a  great  thing  even  for  me  to  live.  In 
my  separate  and  merely  personal  kind  of  life,  I 
have  had  a  greater  epic  transacted  than  was  ever 
written,  or  could  be.  The  little  turns  of  my  way 
have  turned  great  changes,  —  what  I  am  now  as 
distinguished  from  the  merely  mollusk  and  pulpy 
state  of  infancy ;  the  drawing-out  of  my  powers, 


380  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

the  correcting  of  my  errors,  the  winnowing  of  my 
faults,  the  washing  of  my  sins  ;  that  which  has 
given  me  principles,  opinions,  and,  more  than  all, 
a  faith,  and,  as  the  fruit  of  this,  an  abiding  in  the 
sense  and  free  partaking  of  the  life  of  God." 

This  exquisite  picture  of  personal  history,  while 
untrue  as  to  his  "  figure  in  this  world,"  is  full  of 
interest  as  showing  what  he  valued  in  life,  and 
what  he  regarded  as  achievement ;  it  was  life  it- 
self rather  than  what  is  done  in  life  ;  his  separate 
and  merely  personal  kind  of  life  was  to  him  a 
greater  epic  than  was  ever  written.  The  spirit  of 
these  words  breathes  from  almost  every  page  of 
his  writings  and  constitutes  their  power.  He  is 
always  dealing  with  life  and  striving  to  put  it  in 
the  way  to  realize  itself.  It  is  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  older  theologians  of  New  England,  who 
spent  their  lives  in  efforts  to  justify  the  ways  of 
God  to  men  rather  than  in  teaching  them  how  to 
justify  their  own  ways  before  God.  It  is  not 
strange  that  he  seemed  to  himself  to  have  been  a 
small  "  figure  in  the  world."  His  life  was  a  sim- 
ple one,  void  of  striking  incidents,  and  much  like 
that  of  most  New  England  ministers,  even  to  the 
storms  that  beat  upon  him.  Few  rose  to  emi- 
nence who  escaped  them ;  indeed,  it  was  through 
accusations  of  heresy  or  attacks  upon  it  that  emi- 
nence was  usually  achieved.  Nearly  every  mem- 
orable book  on  theology  was  either  an  attack  or 
a  defense.  Bushnell  came  out  of  this  general 
warfare  less  scathed,  and  with  larger  gains  in  his 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  381 

hands,  than  any  of  his  predecessors.  But  aside 
from  controversy,  his  life  was  without  special  in- 
cident, save  that  it  was  overshadowed  by  disease 
during  half  his  years.  A  critical  reader  would 
look  for  signs  of  weakness,  but  it  is  not  easy  to 
place  the  finger  upon  a  page  where  his  thought  is 
qualified  beyond  the  point  where  human  finiteness 
would  naturally  affect  it ;  it  chastens  and  human- 
izes, but  it  does  not  color  nor  deflect  nor  depress 
it.  There  was  in  him  a  superabundance  of  vitality 
and  of  rough  combative  force  that  needed  just  this 
subduing  influence.  Without  it,  he  might  have 
been  a  stormy  polemic,  lacking  in  sympathy  with 
an  order  of  men  and  of  things  that  called  for  gen- 
tle treatment.  As  it  was,  there  was  enough  of 
robustness,  but  also  how  much  of  tender  con- 
sideration and  yearning  fellowship ! 

It  can  be  said  of  Bushnell  as  Professor  George 
B.  Stevens  has  said  of  St.  Paul,  "  He  challenged 
men  to  a  new  habit  of  thought."  It  was  not  so 
much  to  certain  theological  opinions  that  he  ob- 
jected as  to  a  way  of  arriving  at  all  theological 
opinions.  He  was  the  first  theologian  in  New 
England  to  admit  fully  into  his  thought  the  modern 
sense  of  nature,  as  it  is  found  in  the  literature  of 
the  century,  and  notably  in  Wordsworth  and  Cole- 
ridge. He  was  not  a  student  of  this  literature 
beyond  a  thorough  study  of  "  The  Aids  to  Reflec- 
tion," but  through  this  open  door  the  whole  spirit 
of  that  great  thought  movement  entered  his  mind 
and  found  a  congenial  home.     The  secret  of  this 


382  HORACE   BUSIINELL 

movement  was  a  spiritual  interpretation  of  nature. 
It  was  a  step  in  the  evolution  of  human  thought ; 
and  appearing  first  in  literature,  its  natural  point 
of  entrance,  it  was  sure  to  reach  all  forms  of 
thought,  as  in  time  to  come  it  will  reach  all  forms 
of  social  life.  The  thing  that  the  world  had  begun 
to  see  was  that  not  only  is  the  world  God's,  but 
that  God  is  in  his  world.  Bushnell  was  by  nature 
widely  open  to  this  thought,  and  its  undertone  can 
be  heard  in  almost  every  page  of  his  writings. 
Each  of  his  treatises  is,  with  more  or  less  distinct- 
ness, an  effort  to  bring  natural  things  and  divine 
things  into  some  sort  of  relevance  and  oneness. 
He  took  the  path  by  which  superior  minds  have 
always  found  their  way  into  new  realms  of  truth. 
They  do  not  pass  from  one  school  to  another,  but 
instead  rise  into  some  new  or  larger  conception  of 
nature  and  start  afresh.  Bushnell,  with  the  un- 
erring instinct  of  a  discoverer,  struck  this  path 
and  kept  it  to  the  end.  He  did  not  deny  a  certain 
antithesis  between  nature  and  the  supernatural, 
but  he  so  denned  the  latter  that  the  two  could  be 
embraced  in  the  one  category  of  nature  when 
viewed  as  the  ascertained  order  of  God  in  creation. 
The  supernatural  is  simply  the  realm  of  freedom, 
and  it  is  as  natural  as  the  physical  realm  of  neces- 
sity. Thus  he  not  only  got  rid  of  the  traditional 
antinomy  between  them,  but  led  the  way  into  that 
conception  of  the  relation  of  God  to  his  world 
which  more  and  more  is  taking  possession  of  mod- 
ern thought. 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  383 

It  is  a  popular  impression  of  Buslmell  that  lie 
was  the  subject  of  his  imagination,  and  that  it  ran 
away  with  hiin  in  the  treatment  of  themes  which 
required  only  severe  thought.  The  impression  is 
a  double  mistake  ;  theology  does  not  call  for  severe 
thought  alone,  but  for  the  imagination  also  and  the 
seeing  and  interpreting  eye  that  usually  goes  with 
it.  It  is  not  a  vagrant  and  irresponsible  faculty, 
but  an  inner  eye,  whose  vision  is  to  be  trusted  like 
that  of  the  outer;  it  has  in  itself  the  quality  of 
thought,  and  i$  not  a  mere  picture-making  gift. 
Buslmell  trained  his  imagination  to  work  on  cer- 
tain definite  lines,  and  for  a  definite  end ;  namely, 
to  bring  out  the  spiritual  meaning  hidden  within 
the  external  form.  "  These  temporals,"  he  said, 
"  are  the  scabbards  of  the  eternal,  or  the  capsules 
in  which  it  grows,  as  the  matches  whose  fires  are 
kept  hid  in  their  bodies  "(Living  Subjects,  p.  269). 

He  bridged  the  apparent  chasm  between  form 
and  spirit  by  a  theory  of  language,  to  which  a  pre- 
vious chapter  is  devoted  and  frequent  reference 
is  made  because  it  everywhere  underlies  his  work. 
This  conception  of  language  does  not  discredit  the 
rational  faculty ;  it  is  only  another  path  for  reach- 
ing a  rational  conclusion.  A  phrase  in  "  Work 
and  Play  "  indicates  perhaps  better  than  any  other 
his  real  standpoint,  and  the  spirit  in  which  he 
worked :  — 

"  No  more  will  it  be  imagined  that  poetry  and 
rhythm  are  accidents  or  figments  of  the  race,  one 
side  of  all  ingredient  or  ground  of  nature.     But 


384  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

we  shall  know  that  poetry  is  the  real  and  true  state 
of  man ;  the  proper  and  last  ideal  of  souls." 

This  conception  reaches  to  his  style.  It  is  made 
up  of  long  sentences  full  of  qualifying  phrases,  until 
the  thought  is  carved  into  perfect  exactness  ;  or, 
changing  the  figure,  shade  upon  shade  is  added, 
until  the  picture  and  conception  are  alike.  But 
with  all  this  piling  up  of  phrases,  he  not  only 
does  not  lose  proportion  and  rhythm,  but  so  sets 
down  his  words  that  they  read  like  a  chant.  It 
is  varied,  however,  by  frequent  condensation  into 
apothegmatic  phrases,  but  the  chant  is  quickly  re- 
sumed, —  a  requirement  of  his  nature,  for  it  may 
be  said  of  him  that  he  thought  musically.  The 
harmony  of  one  thing  with  another  and  of  all 
things  with  the  Life  of  all,  subdued  the  play  of 
his  mind  and  his  expression  into  likeness  to  it- 
self. His  style  has  been  criticised  as  garish  and 
extravagant,  —  a  just  criticism  at  times.  He  not 
only  followed  that  sound  rule  of  good  writing, 
to  lean  heavily  on  the  subject,  but  he  sometimes 
overworked  not  only  his  subject  but  the  best  fea- 
ture of  his  style.  He  always  gave  a  fine  loyalty 
to  his  theme,  and  laid  the  universe  under  tribute 
to  it ;  all  realms  were  ransacked  for  material  to 
uphold  it,  but  not  seldom  with  too  evident  remote- 
ness to  serve  it  well.  The  commonest  fault  in  his 
writing  is  over-insistence,  —  a  fault  incident  to  his 
profession,  and  fed  by  the  very  nature  of  the  end 
in  view.  The  clearest  marks  of  his  style  are  its 
elevation  and  dignity.     Not  in  all  his  volumes  can 


THE   WORK  OF   BUSHNELL  385 

a  sentence  be  found  that  falls  below  a  high  stand- 
ard of  these  qualities.  His  discourse  is  always 
bathed  in  beauty  and  high  solemnity,  as  though  he 
saw  all  things  in  that  light.  Without  comparing 
his  style  as  to  merit  with  that  of  Milton  and 
Jeremy  Taylor  and  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  it  may  be 
claimed  that  he  belongs  to  their  class  ;  he  has  the 
same  majestic  swing,  and  like  them  he  cannot  for- 
bear singing,  whatever  he  may  have  to  say.  His 
theme  may  be  roads,  or  city  plans,  or  agriculture, 
or  emigration,  or  the  growth  of  law ;  yet  he  never 
fails  of  lifting  his  subject  into  that  higher  world 
of  the  imagination  where  the  real  truth  of  the 
subject  is  to  be  found. 

We  come  now  to  a  more  definite  examination 
of  his  work. 

The  New  England  theology  at  no  time  assumed 
that  a  finality  had  been  reached  in  theological 
accuracy.  The  Congregational  Order,  with  its 
individualism  and  absolute  equality,  looked  in  the 
opposite  direction  and  invited  change.  But  it  had 
reached  a  crisis  through  which  it  could  not  pass  in 
safety.  Re-definition  and  re-debating  were  no 
longer  adequate  to  meet  the  new  order  of  thought 
that  had  come  in  with  science  and  the  unfolding 
of  society.  Already  a  defection  of  the  most  serious 
character,  and  involving  deplorable  results  for  both 
parties,  had  taken  place.  On  theological  grounds 
it  was  more  than  half  justifiable  ;  on  ecclesiastical 
grounds  it  was  schismatic  and  had  the  weakness 
of  schism.     The  Unitarian  movement  was  clearly 


386  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

without  promise  of  success  as  a  visible  church. 
Its  most  brilliant  leaders  failed  it  in  construction 
and  outran  it  in  critical  denial.  In  its  long  list  of 
great  names, — poets,  scholars,  orators,  preachers, 
statesmen,  —  none  appeared  with  the  disposition 
or  the  ability  to  lead  and  to  construct.  Extreme 
individualism  and  the  rapid  shifting  of  opinion  in 
every  department  of  thought  probably  explain  this 
feature  of  the  movement.  Its  justification  and  its 
weakness  were  that  it  was  a  protest  and  a  denial. 
Being  such,  reconstruction  into  a  corporate  church 
life  was  difficult  if  not  impossible. 

Midway  in  this  movement,  Bushnell  appeared 
on  the  scene.  With  no  antecedents  or  environ- 
ment to  account  for  him,  he  stood  out  between  the 
two  parties  under  the  impulse  of  his  own  thought, 
separated  from  each,  but  having  a  common  mes- 
sage for  both.  It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  in 
the  conflict,  now  almost  a  century  long,  Bushnell 
affords  almost  the  only  conspicuous  example  of  an 
effort  to  compass  both  sides  of  the  question  at 
issue.  Many  efforts  at  reconciliation  have  been 
made,  but  the  terms  demanded  have  been  the  sur- 
render of  the  other   party.1     It  is  not  yet  easy  to 

1  Exception  should  be  made  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  A.  Gor- 
don's able  book,  The  Christ  of  To-day,  in  which  the  anthropo- 
logy, the  real  field  of  the  long  debate,  is  treated  with  a  fairness 
and  freedom  from  tradition  that  deserve  the  consideration  of  both 
parties.  Exception  should  also  be  made  of  the  works  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  James  M.  Whiton,  and  of  many  pages  in  the  books  of  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Lyman  Abbott,  whose  voluminous  writings,  both  as 
author  and  editor,  have  been  of  incalculable  service,  not  less  in 
clarifying  the  thought  of  both  parties  than  in  promoting  a  spirit 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  387 

realize  the  importance  of  the  position  maintained  by 
Bushnell.  Less  and  less  will  his  theological  ojmi- 
ions  be  quoted,  though  they  will  not  soon  be  for- 
gotten, but  his  stand  and  method  will  more  and 
more  take  on  the  form  of  a  deliverance  for  Ortho- 
doxy. One  has  only  to  read  the  pamphlets  of  Dr. 
Tyler  and  "  Omicron  "  and  the  protests  of  "  The 
Christian  Observer  "  to  see  the  gulf  that  was  open- 
ing before  it.  The  bequeathed  contention  of  Ed- 
wards had  already  more  than  half  yielded  to  Armin- 
ianism  and  modern  thought.  What  would  follow, 
no  man  knew.  Relief  was  needed  at  four  points : 
first,  from  a  revivalism  that  ignored  the  law  of 
Christian  growth ;  second,  from  a  conception  of 
the  trinity  bordering  on  tritheism  ;  third,  from  a 
view  of  miracles  that  implied  a  suspension  of  natu- 
ral law ;  and  fourth,  from  a  theory  of  the  atone- 
ment that  had  grown  almost  shadowy  under  "  im- 
provements," yet  still  failed  to  declare  the  law  of 
human  life. 

The  time  had  also  come  when  a  rational,  scien- 
tific, cause-and-effect  habit  of  thought  was  im- 
peratively required,  not  only  on  these  four  points, 
but  in  the  whole  realm  of  theology.  But  the  doc- 
trines, even  as  they  were  held,  were  not  to  be  cast 
out  and  trodden  under  foot.     They  sprang  out  of 

of  charity  •which  comhines  the  truth  of  both.  Nor  would  we 
intimate  that  other  writers  in  each  denomination  have  not,  from 
their  own  standpoint,  done  much  by  concession  and  mutual  recog- 
nition of  each  other's  strength,  to  heal  a  schism  which  Bishop 
Phillips  Brooks  said  would  not  have  happened  if  modern  exegesis 
had  existed  in  the  early  part  of  the  century. 


388  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

great  and  nourishing  truths,  the  germs  of  which 
still  lay  within  them.  Bushnell  undertook  to  rein- 
terpret these  doctrines,  and  to  restate  them  in  the 
terms  of  life  itself ;  to  find  their  ground  in  nature 
and  revelation,  and  in  the  processes  of  the  human 
spirit. 

The  question  of  revivalism  will  not  be  debated 
here ;  it  was  a  phase  in  the  development  of  the 
church ;  but  when  Bushnell  assumed  his  pastorate, 
it  had  overwhelmed  the  law  of  normal  Christian 
growth.  Salvation  had  become  a  matter  for  adults, 
or  for  children  under  adidt  conditions.  Baptism 
had  lost  its  significance ;  the  doctrine  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  was  buried  under  trivial  and  debasing  asser- 
tions ;  emotion  outweighed  reflection  ;  the  whole 
matter  of  entrance  upon  the  Christian  life  was 
made  to  wait  upon  times  and  seasons  and  the  most 
adventitious  circumstances,  even  while  all  the  means 
of  grace  and  the  full  organization  of  the  church  were 
at  hand.  But  at  the  same  time  revivalism  brought 
life  and  force  into  the  churches.  It  outran  the 
tendency  in  theology,  and  became  Arminian  in  its 
tone  and  its  use  of  the  will.  It  begot  a  spirit  of 
action  that  led  to  missions  and  personal  activity  in 
good  works.  But  it  had  no  theory  or  law  of  its 
own  ;  as  a  matter  of  fact,  its  working  depended  on 
individuals  of  a  certain  temperament,  whose  pre- 
sence in  a  community  seemed  to  determine  the 
coming  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  But  tins  tendency 
to  superstition  was  not  so  serious  as  the  almost 
total  obscuration  of  the  historic  doctrine  as  to  the 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  389 

place  of  children  in  the  church,  and  the  concurrent 
doctrine  of  the  growth  of  the  church  from  within 
by  its  own  njurture.  Revivalism  was  practically 
anabaptist. 

Bushnell  early  fixed  his  eye  upon  the  system, 
and  slowly  came  to  certain  conclusions  which  he 
held  substantially  to  the  end.  He  did  not  oppose 
the  system,  but  he  disagreed  with  it  at  so  many 
points  that  it  was  equivalent  to  opposition.  His 
criticism,  however,  did  not  turn  on  details  of 
method ;  he  went  to  the  root  of  the  question  by 
asserting  that  the  church  had  forgotten  the  law  of 
its  growth.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  "  Christian 
Nurture  "  has  slowly  and  quietly  supplanted  revi- 
valism in  New  England,  —  not  the  tiling  itself,  for 
it  still  lingers  in  a  harmless  and  often  useful  and 
even  necessary  way,  but  it  has  taught  the  churches 
that  the  law  of  their  growth  does  not  lie  in  revi- 
vals, but  in  the  Christian  nurture  of  the  young. 
The  theological  objections  to  it  vanished  long  ago, 
and  it  has  passed  into  the  religious  life  of  New  Eng- 
land as  a  permeating  and  transforming  influence. 
The  revival  system  would  have  worn  itself  out  in 
time  through  contact  with  modern  ideas  and  meth- 
ods, but  it  would  have  left  the  churches  without 
a  doctrine  of  Christian  growth,  and  also  without  a 
working  method.  "  Christian  Nurture  "  furnished 
both,  and  saved  the  church  from  that  worst  of  all 
fates,  the  loss  of  a  vital  doctrine  without  one  to  fill 
its  place.  But  even  a  greater  achievement  of  this 
book  was  that  it  so  effectively  turned  the  current 


390  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

of  Christian  thought  toward  the  youug,  where  it  is 
now  going  and  must  continue  to  go. 

The  next  marked  service  of  Bushnell  to  the 
theology  of  his  day  was  rendered  in  connection 
with  the  Trinity. 

It  will  not  be  claimed  that  it  corresponds  in 
value  or  even  in  kind  with  that  rendered  in  con- 
nection with  Christian  nurture  and  the  supernat- 
ural and  the  atonement.  In  each  of  these  he 
fought  and  won  a  battle.  On  the  Trinity,  his 
work  was  a  skirmish,  and  had  only  the  value  of  a 
diversion,  but  it  was  greatly  needed.  The  funda- 
mental questions  at  issue  between  Orthodoxy  and 
Unitarianism  did  not  pertain  so  much  to  the  being 
of  God  as  to  the  nature  of  man.1 

The  real  dispute  was  over  the  fall  and  depravity 
and  regeneration.  In  respect  to  the  last,  Bushnell's 
influence  as  contained  in  "  Christian  Nurture  "  and 
the  first  volume  of  "  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice"  may 
be  justly  quoted  as  sustaining  the  protests  of  the 
Unitarianism  of  the  day.  That  the  real  point  at 
issue  was  anthropological  quite  as  much  as  theis- 
tic  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  Arianism  was  — 

1  "  It  must  be  remembered  that  the  real  point  of  controversy 
between  the  two  parties  in  New  England  was  the  doctrine  of  Sin 
and  the  correlated  doctrine  of  Conversion.  The  field  of  debate 
was  Anthropology.  ...  It  is  remarkable,  although  the  Trinity 
and  the  person  of  Christ  were  nominally  the  subject  of  conten- 
tion in  the  Unitarian  controversy,  how  little  of  importance  was 
contributed  on  either  side  to  the  elucidation  of  these  topics. 
Even  Norton  and  Stuart,  the  best  equipped  disputants,  say  little 
that  had  not  been  said  before."  (Professor  George  P.  Fisher, 
D.  D.,  History  of  Church  Doctrine,  p.  429.) 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  391 

almost  carelessly,  it  would  seem  —  adopted  as  de- 
fining the  nature  of  Christ,  —  a  view  of  little 
repute  in  the  world  of  thought.  Unitarianism 
felt  no  passion  for  Arianism  and  very  soon  gave  it 
up  altogether,  but  it  protested  with  unmeasured 
emphasis  against  total  depravity,  reprobation,  and 
the  inferno  of  Edwards  and  Hopkins.  The  flag 
that  was  raised,  however,  was  inscribed  with  a 
denial  of  the  Trinity,  and  Unitarian  became  the 
name  of  the  movement.  It  was  naturally  chosen 
because  it  was  easily  understood,  and  could  be 
effectively  put  to  the  people,  —  as  that  trinity 
meant  three  Gods ;  was  a  survival  of  polytheism ; 
was  derogatory  to  the  Deity;  that  if  apparently 
taught  in  one  text  of  Scripture  it  was  denied  in 
others  ;  that  it  was  a  contradiction,  —  three  are 
one  and  one  is  three.  It  was  under  such  a  pre- 
sentation that  the  Unitarian  movement  made  its 
successful  appeal  to  the  people.  There  was  much 
in  the  orthodox  presentation  of  the  Trinity  to  jus- 
tify the  criticism.  The  Nicene  symbol  was  not 
understood,  and  Calvinism  suggested,  even  if  it  did 
not  assert,  a  distinction  of  persons  that  was  not 
misnamed  tritheistic.  Never  really  held,  it  was 
often  so  preached  that  the  imputation  could  not 
be  denied.  But  however  the  Trinity  was  preached 
and  taught,  it  was  incorrectly  taught,  and  so  far 
as  criticism  went,  Unitarianism  was  right.  The 
situation  was  dangerous  to  Orthodoxy,  especially 
at  this  point.  On  the  real  points  of  difference 
changes  were  going  on  that  might  have  prevented 


392  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

the  schism,  had  not  haste  on  one  side  and  intol- 
erance on  the  other  prevented  patience  from  hav- 
ing its  perfect  work.  Edwards  and  Hopkins  were 
no  longer  names  to  conjure  with.  Decrees  had 
been  softened  into  an  Arminian  sense.  Imputa- 
tion and  reprobation  and  penal  satisfaction  were 
nearly  "  improved "  out  of  existence.  Human 
nature  was  not  held  to  be  quite  so  corrupt  as 
Edwards  had  taught.  The  deepening  sense  of 
humanity,  the  literature  it  inspired,  democratic  in- 
stitutions, and  a  better  exegesis  were  busy  in  up- 
rooting these  perversions  of  doctrine.  All  would 
have  been  well  in  time,  if  time  had  been  made  a 
factor  in  the  question.  As  the  unity  of  God  was  the 
conspicuous  postulate  on  one  side  and  the  Trinity 
on  the  other,  the  battle  raged  over  that  question 
so  far  as  it  was  carried  on  by  the  people.  Bush- 
nell  himself,  in  college  days,  had  felt  the  difficul- 
ties of  the  orthodox  position,  and  had  lived  in 
silent  skepticism  of  it,  to  be  delivered  at  last  by 
his  heart,  but  not  restored  to  full  orthodoxy.  His 
position  has  been  fully  stated  in  previous  chapters. 
"  God  in  Christ  "did  not  defend  historic  ortho- 
doxy, nor  did  it  place  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
where  it  stands  to-day,  but  it  served  the  purpose 
of  a  diversion  against  the  charges  of  tritheism,. 
and  it  checked  the  recasting  of  church  creeds 
into  tritheistic  terms,  —  a  measure  that  had  been 
adopted  to  stop  the  growing  heresy.1 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  each  CongTeg-ational  Church 
makes  its  own  creed,  and  adopts  it  by  a  majority  vote  of  its  male 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  393 

The  next  point  at  which  Bushnell  brought  sen- 
sible relief  to  the  thought  of  his  day  was  that  of 
miracles,  or  the  supernatural. 

He  was  early  led  to  think  of  the  relation  be- 
tween the  order  of  nature  and  the  fact  of  a  mira- 
cle, and  of  course  the  first  play  of  his  mind  upon 
it  was  skeptical;  the  prevailing  conception  could 
have  induced  no  other  result  in  him.  The  doc- 
trine of  miracles  has  been  held  in  two  leading 
forms.  First,  that  they  are  to  be  accepted  on  the 
strength  of  the  evidences  as  stated  in  Scripture ; 

members.  The  independence  of  the  local  church  is  grounded 
in  an  ideal  conception  of  Christian  personality ;  but  while  it 
favors  and  stimulates  the  development  of  character,  it  often 
makes  sad  work  of  it  when  it  undertakes  to  check  error  by  fram- 
ing a  definitive  creed.  It  was  an  immense  relief,  especially 
to  young  pastors,  to  be  freed  from  the  necessity  of  affirming 
three  metaphysical  persons  in  the  substance  of  the  Godhead  ; 
and  to  feel  at  liberty  to  relegate  the  distinction  of  persons  to 
the  mystery  of  the  Divine  Existence  without  affirmation  or  denial ; 
and  to  put  in  its  place  an  "  instrumental  trinity  "  as  sufficient  for 
faith  and  practical  religious  uses.  It  was  exactly  at  this  point 
that  relief  was  experienced.  The  subject  was  taken  out  of  specu- 
lation, the  ground  of  which  was  shifting  from  day  to  day,  and 
made  a  matter  of  Christian  experience.  Whether  Bushnell's 
view  was  correct  or  not,  it  was  exceedingly  workable :  it  brought 
God  in  all  his  fullness  into  humanity,  and  its  patripassianism 
made  it  all  that  the  human  heart  required  for  its  personal  needs. 
While  it  relieved  the  doctrine  from  the  tritheistic  cast  that  had 
gathered  about  it,  it  was  removed  toto  ccelo  from  the  Arian  con- 
ception of  Christ  that  prevailed  in  eastern  Massachusetts.  His 
recognition,  later  on,  of  the  central  idea  of  the  Nicene  symbol 
did  not  weaken  the  delivering  power  of  his  first  utterance,  or  in- 
dicate that  it  was  groundless.  He  carried  the  doctrine  out  of  a 
region  where  it  was  going  to  pieces,  and  brought  it  where  only  it 
can  be  made  to  stand,  —  the  consciousness  of  the  Christian  life  ; 
that  is,  as  he  said,  it  is  "  a  practical  truth." 


394  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

second,  that  the  character  and  teaching  of  Christ 
are  internal  proofs  of  the  reality  of  his  miraculous 
works  ;  —  Christ  carries  the  miracles,  and  not  the 
reverse.  While  there  was  an  immense  advance 
from  Paley's  view  to  that  of  Coleridge,  —  for  such 
is  the  order  in  which  the  chief  expounders  of  the 
two  theories  stand,  —  neither  touched  the  real 
grounds  of  the  doubt  that  had  begun  to  prevail, 
because  neither  covered  the  relation  of  miracles  to 
the  laws  of  nature ;  each  theory  left  them  in  antag- 
onism. It  was  here  that  doubt  lingered,  however 
much  the  figure  of  Christ  might  plead  for  faith ; 
it  grew  strong  under  a  growing  sense  of  natural 
law,  and  all  the  more  because  thought  was  rapidly 
turning  to  nature  as  a  factor  in  the  religious  life 
of  man.  It  was  getting  to  be  felt  that  the  laws  of 
nature  could  not  be  regarded  as  set  aside  as  in 
the  first  view,  or  ignored  as  under  the  second  view. 
Bushnell  saw  the  difficulty  with  each,  though  re- 
cognizing a  certain  force  in  them.  He  was  always 
ready  to  differ  with  Paley,  an  author  whom  he  un- 
dervalued ;  and  equally  ready  to  agree  with  Cole- 
ridge, whom  he  followed  almost  without  question ; 
but  he  was  a  century  in  advance  of  one,  and  he 
had  developed  under  the  teaching  of  the  other. 

It  is  at  this  point  our  readers  will  perceive  why, 
in  these  pages,  we  have  continually  spoken  of 
BushnelTs  steady  appeal  to  nature  and  its  laws. 
His  vision  was  not  full,  but  it  was  real.  An  ex- 
cessive sense  of  evil  and  of  its  reach  at  times 
clouded  his  eyes,  and  he  shrank  from  a  view  of 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  395 

nature  that  included  God  yet  was  not  transcended 
by  Him,  but  he  still  saw  that  nature  and  the  super- 
natural could  not  be  put  in  essential  antithesis,  but 
must  form  "  one  system."  1  His  method,  however, 
was  not  to  bring  the  supernatural  down  into  what 
is  called  the  natural,  but  to  lift  the  natural  into  the 
supernatural.  The  point  of  contact  was  anthro- 
pological ;  —  man  is  supernatural  by  virtue  of  his 
will ;  his  consciousness  of  free-agency  delivers  him 
from  the  grasp  of  endless  causation,  and  makes 
him  one  with  God  in  freedom  and  creative  energy. 
There  are  indeed  passages  in  "  Nature  and  the 
Supernatural "  where  nature  is  treated  almost  with 
contempt,  and,  as  naturalism,  is  made  the  synonym 
of  infidelity;  but  it  is  not  nature  itself  that  he 
has  in  mind,  but  the  use  and  relation  put  upon  it. 
When  dissevered  from  the  supernatural,  and  re- 
garded as  being  in  itself  the  measure  of  God  and 
of  all  appertaining  truth,  he  treats  it  with  scorn, 
as  revealing  nothing,  as  without  meaning,  as  a 
limitation  and  a  debasement ;  but  when  made  a 
co-factor  with  the  supernatural  in  the  one  system 

1  "  The  supernatural,  in  its  broadest  sense,  is  that  which  mani- 
fests the  operation  of  personality ;  so  Horace  Bushnell  would  have 
defined  it.  So  we  must  define  it  to-day.  In  the  narrower  sense,  it 
is  that  which  manifests  superhuman  personality  ;  only,  whereas 
in  former  times  the  criterion  of  personal  operation  was  under- 
stood to  he  lawlessness  or  caprice,  in  modern  times  it  is  seen  to 
he  at  its  divine  perfection  only  in  the  perfect  adjustment  and 
adaptation  of  the  law.  The  continuity  and  uniformity  of  the 
divine  action  should  now  belong  to  the  rudiments  of  our  faith  in 
God."  (Professor  Benjamin  W.  Bacon,  D.  D.,  The  Church  Union, 
January,  1898.) 


396  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

of  God,  it  becomes  its  true  self,  full  of  light  and 
prophecy  and  all  manner  of  revelation,  —  "a  vast 
analogon  of  the  world  of  the  spirit."  Thus  viewed, 
the  natural  and  the  supernatural  are  not  two 
worlds  ;  the  antithesis  fades  out,  and  all  things  and 
all  processes  are  divine.  Such  was  Bushnell's 
habitual  look  at  nature. 

This  was  the  announcement  that  the  age  was 
awaiting  from  the  lips  of  faith.  The  long  debate 
over  the  will  had  come  to  a  practical  end,  and  con- 
sciousness was  left  free  to  assert  its  freedom,  no 
lonsrer  entangled  in  theories  of  motives  and  natural 
causation.  On  the  other  hand,  literature,  political 
freedom,  and  evolution  had  forced  thought  up  to  a 
point  where  a  new  definition  of  man  was  required ; 
he  must  be  relegated  to  the  play  of  natural  laws,  — 
a  thing  with  things,  —  or  lifted  into  the  divine  order 
with  God.  The  Incarnation  had  come  to  the  front, 
and  stood  ready  to  be  accepted  or  denied.  It  could 
be  realized  and  fulfilled  only  under  a  conception 
of  man  that  should  ally  him  with  God ;  that  is,  he 
must  be  defined  as  supernatural.  This  is  the  work 
attempted  by  Bushnell.  It  will  not  be  claimed 
that  he  compassed  man's  nature  and  fixed  his  place 
in  this  still  mysterious  world,  nor  even  that  he 
defended  his  great  thesis  on  wholly  defensible 
grounds ;  but  he  enunciated  a  conception  of  man, 
and  inferentially  of  miracles,  imperatively  needed 
to  save  faith  from  lapsing  into  Deism,  and  from 
longer  deferred  realization  of  the  Incarnation. 
Bushnell   did    not  himself  foresee   how  his  thesis 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  397 

linked  itself  with  this  basal  fact  of  Christianity  ; 
indeed,  he  said  much  that  looked  away  from  it,  but 
later  thought  has  taken  up  his  essential  contention 
and  carried  it  to  its  logical  conclusion,  not,  however, 
without  aid  from  other  sources. 

But  the  immediate  effect  of  "  Nature  and  the 
Supernatural  "  was  that  of  immense  relief,  felt 
especially  by  the  younger  clergy.  At  no  point  was 
the  pressure  of  doubt  in  the  fifties  and  sixties  so 
great  as  in  respect  to  miracles.  Unitarian  thought 
was  fast  lapsing  into  total  denial,  and,  as  at  every 
step,  not  without  partial  justification.  Science, 
with  its  dawning  theory  of  the  continuity  of  force, 
forbade  an  interruption  of  natural  law.  The  per- 
plexity was  deep  and  general.  Bushnell  took  off 
the  pressure  from  either  side.  One  was  no  longer 
forced  to  meet  the  charge  of  carrying  a  miracle 
in  one  hand  and  its  denial  in  the  other,  and  yet 
claiming  both  as  from  God.  To  all  such  Bushnell 
opened  a  door  of  relief  in  man  himself,  and  said, 
"  Here  is   the  reconciliation  ;   enter  and  believe." 

This  view  of  man  as  a  supernatural  being,  and 
of  "  one  system,"  seems  to  have  come  to  stay,  at 
least  in  its  main  features.  The  physical  inter- 
pretations of  the  world  and  of  man  wane  and 
grow  dim,  and  shade  off  into  impenetrable  mys- 
tery ;  the  spiritual  grows  clearer  and  firmer,  and 
justifies  us  in  claiming  it  as  the  abode  of  our  life 
and  the  field  for  the  play  of  its  highest  power ;  the 
creative  will  is  one  with  God's  will.  It  is  largely 
due  to   Bushnell  that   Faith  can   say  this  to-day 


398  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

without  meeting  the  charge  of  unreason.  It  is 
true  that  there  still  prevail  conceptions  of  miracle 
as  the  violation  of  natural  law,  and  also  a  crass 
rejection  of  the  supernatural  as  a  superstition,  but 
the  best  thought  of  the  day  links  them  together 
and  leaves  them  by  the  wayside.  This  thought, 
of  which  Bushnell  saw  the  early  gleam  and  was  the 
first  among  us  clearly  to  herald,  stands  before  na- 
ture, the  revelations  of  science,  and  the  unfolding 
nature  of  man,  in  wonder  and  silence,  confessing 
that  God  is  behind  and  in  all,  and  that  his  laws 
like  himself  are  one. 

The  final  value  of  this  book  is  that  it  delivers 
us  from  the  evanescence  of  the  material  world, 
and  gives  us  a  place  in  the  enduring  order  of  the 
will  of  God.  Granting  the  antithesis  between  the 
transient  and  the  eternal,  the  visible  and  the  invisi- 
ble, the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  — and  that 
there  is  antithesis  cannot  be  denied,  —  the  book 
finds  a  place  for  us  under  the  larger  factor.  It 
makes  us  feel  and  confess  the  supernatural.  Imper- 
fect in  many  ways,  it  is  still  a  spur  to  thought  and 
a  stimulus  to  the  spirit,  and  by  awakening  a  sense 
of  ourselves  as  sharing  in  the  supernatural,  it  pre- 
pares us  for  that  conception  of  God  and  his  rela- 
tion to  the  world  which  lies  before  us  to  be  realized 
and  wrought  into  life  and  doctrine. 

This  much  is  to  be  said  of  Bushnell' s  work  ;  — 
whatever  doctrine  or  subject  he  touched  was  left 
in  better  shape  than  he  found  it.  He  advanced 
the  whole  line  of  theology  in  New  England  without 


THE   WORK   OF  BUSHNELL  399 

creating  schism.  His  wide  and  violent  rupture 
with  Orthodoxy  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  out  of  the 
line  of  theological  development.  He  did  not  make 
himself  an  alien  in  the  world  where  he  found  him- 
self. Its  dogmas  were  essential  to  his  denials ; 
they  furnished  the  only  background  on  which  his 
work  can  now  be  seen.  This  is  eminently  true  of 
his  last  treatise,  "  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice,"  espe- 
cially the  first  volume. 

The  governmental  or  Grotian  theory  of  the  atone- 
ment never  took  a  strong  hold  on  the  thought  of 
New  England,  and  whatever  strength  it  had  was 
derived  from  the  fact  that  it  was  a  deliverance 
from  the  penal  view,  and  also  from  the  great  abil- 
ity with  which  it  had  been  set  forth  by  the  younger 
Edwards,  Dwight,  Taylor,  and  other  theologians  of 
the  New  Haven  School.  It  was  a  scholastic  and 
not  a  human  doctrine.  It  was  far  off  and  general. 
Simple  souls  wanted  an  atonement  to  sustain  them- 
selves rather  than  the  government  of  God.  It 
was  not  the  maintenance  of  general  justice  that 
they  felt  the  need  of,  but  something  that  would 
help  them  to  become  personally  just  before  God. 
Thought  covdd  not  go  on  much  longer  with  its 
over-emphasis  of  the  atonement  and  its  under-em- 
phasis  of  the  Incarnation  without  losing  its  rela- 
tion to  human  society.  The  atonement  as  some- 
thing done  for  and  upon  man,  leaving  him  not  an 
actor  but  a  receiver,  threw  him  out  of  gear  with 
the  modern  idea  of  personality.  This  idea  was 
rather  to  be  found  in  the  Incarnation,  the  inmost 


400  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

meaning  of  which  is  divine  Fatherhood  and  obe* 
dient  Sonship.  It  means  Christ,  not  dying  for 
man  to  fill  out  some  demand  of  government,  but 
living  in  man  in  order  to  develop  his  divineness,  or, 
as  Bushnell  phrased  it,  that  he  might  become 
"  Christed."  It  was  getting  to  be  seen  that  what- 
ever Christianity  is  to  do  for  man  must  be  done 
through  the  Incarnation  ;  that  is,  through  the  one- 
ness of  God  and  humanity,  the  perfect  realization 
of  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  Christ.  It  is  a 
truth  instinct  with  action  ;  it  allies  itself  closely 
with  human  development  and  is  a  co- working  cause 
of  it.  Now,  it  does  not  matter  what  particular 
view  Bushnell  may  have  taken  at  one  time  or 
another  as  to  the  nature  of  the  Godhead ;  whether 
Sabellian  or  Nicene,  his  thought  and  teaching 
pointed  steadily  toward  the  Incarnation.  Nor  does 
it  matter  how  he  represented  God  in  hiunanity  ;  — 
He  is  there,  and  He  is  there  because  humanity 
exists  eternally  in  God  ;  and,  being  there,  He  must 
appear  in  created  hiunanity.  Buslmell's  pages 
overflow  with  this  truth ;  it  is  the  backbone  of  his 
doctrine  of  the  atonement.  He  not  only  brought 
relief  to  many  minds  who  could  not  accept  a  penal 
atonement,  and  did  not  feel  the  force  of  the  gov- 
ernmental theory,  but  he  outlined,  however  roughly 
and  with  whatever  of  hesitation  over  side  ques- 
tions, that  view  of  the  atonement  which  has  its 
centre  in  the  Incarnation,  and  in  the  process  by 
which  man  realizes  his  oneness  with  God.1 

1  This  view  of  the  Incarnation  is  seen  as  early  as  1849  in  a  let- 
ter to  Dr.  Bartol :  "  The  tendency  of  German  speculations  and 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  401 

The  strength  of  his  teaching  lies  in  the  fact  that 
it  was  not  a  work  of  speculation,  but  a  personal 
achievement.  He  walked  in  the  light  of  his  day. 
He  lived,  and  he  watched  the  on-going  of  his  own 
life.  He  had  great  strivings  within  himself  in  his 
relation  to  evil  and  to  God,  and  he  had  respect  to 
the  way  in  which  he  found  peace.  He  went  where 
all  thought  is  to-day  going  for  a  knowledge  of 
man,  —  to  the  facts  themselves,  to  human  nature, 
its  needs  and  its  relations,  and  made  a  "  first-hand  " 
matter  of  what  had  not  been  considered  as  within 
reach.  In  all  this  there  was  little  consciousness 
that  he  had  a  part  to  play,  except  to  clear  a  path 
for  himself  and  for  those  under  him.  But  being 
what  he  was,  he  wrought  out  the  deliverance  that 
the  church  about  him  was  waiting  for.  He  saved 
its  central  doctrine  without  rupture  or  a  tempo- 
rary eclipse  of  faith.  We  may  or  may  not  render 
formal  assent  to  the  moral  view  of  the  atonement, 
but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  generally  preached, 
and  it  underlies  and  enters  into  all  the  work  of 
the  church.1     No  change  of  religious  opinion  was 

reactions,  you  have  seen  (as  in  Ullman's  article  on  the  '  Essence 
of  Christianity')  is  towards  the  '  Incarnation,'  the  union  of  the  di- 
vine and  the  human  in  the  person  of  Jesus,  understanding  that 
union  in  its  highest  sense.  I  am  confident  that  Unitarianism  and 
Orthodoxy  can  never  unite  in  any  other  point  than  this." 

1  "  Thirty  years  ago,  Bushnell's  great  work,  The  Vicarious 
Sacrifice,  appeared  and  provoked  a  heated  controversy.  The 
author  was  excluded  from  many  pulpits.  But  now  his  theory  is 
more  generally  accepted  than  any  other."  (Sermon  preached  in 
Central  Church,  Worcester,  Mass.,  1895,  by  President  George 
Harris,  D.  D.,  of  Amherst  College.) 


402  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

ever  more  beautiful  in  its  process,  —  silent,  grad- 
ual, and  making  its  way  by  its  inherent  reasona- 
bleness. It  has  not  been  put  into  dogmatic  form, 
and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  it  never  will  be ;  it  is  the 
surest  way  to  devitalize  a  truth.  Less  and  less  is 
there  a  disposition  to  make  it  a  matter  of  specula- 
tion and  definition.  The  reason  oftenest  given  for 
hesitation  is  that  it  is  a  mystery,  but  the  real 
reason  is  that  it  is  felt  to  be  God's  own  life  in  the 
world  lived  out  under  the  laws  of  life ;  to  define 
it  is  like  denning  life ;  when  it  has  been  done,  you 
instantly  feel  that  it  has  not  been  done.  The 
penal  or  satisfaction  theory  is  sometimes  preached 
because  it  is  tangible  and  has  the  apparent  support 
of  the  Scriptures  and  the  real  support  of  the  West- 
minster Confession  ;  but  the  governmental  theory, 
though  held  in  respect,  is  seldom  presented  as  a 
ground  for  human  conduct.  The  Incarnation  has 
enfolded  and  drawn  up  into  itself  the  atonement, 
where  man  becomes  one  with  God  in  Christ  Jesus. 
Sin  does  not  draw  God  down  to  endure  its  penalty, 
or  to  maintain  his  government ;  rather  does  He  enter 
into  humanity,  —  having  it  eternally  in  himself, 
—  in  order  to  save  and  regenerate  it  by  participa- 
tion in  its  life.  This  was  Bushnell's  teaching,  and 
since  his  day  the  eye  of  theology  in  New  England 
has  been  fixed  on  the  Incarnation  as  the  central 
doctrine  ;  and  there  it  stands  awaiting  full  devel- 
opment, and  in  natural  alliance  with  all  thought. 
Theism  is  shaping  itself  for  its  easy  admission, 
and  Humanity  is  opening  its  eyes  to  its  own  divine- 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  403 

ness.  The  realized  ideal  of  the  union  and  one- 
ness of  the  two  will  probably  not  be  henceforth  a 
subject  for  debate  and  definition,  but  will  be  re- 
garded as  a  fact  in  the  development  of  human 
history. 

While  a  very  definite  effect  can  be  ascribed  to 
these  four  treatises,  inducing  as  they  did  a  new 
use  of  terms  and  new  conceptions  of  truth,  they 
did  not  measure  the  range  and  depth  of  Bushnell's 
work.  It  was  not  strongest  in  theological  circles. 
He  never  came  to  be  en  rapport  with  the  profes- 
sional students  of  theology  ;  they  did  not  like  his 
elusive  use  of  language,  and  he  did  not  like  their 
way  of  defining  ;  each  had  some  just  ground  of 
complaint  against  the  other.  His  appeal  was 
strongest  to  a  different  order  of  mind,  —  the  spir- 
itual, the  sympathetic,  those  who  lived  by  the  heart 
and  knew  by  insight.  It  is  through  such  minds 
that  his  influence  has  been  deepest  and  broad- 
est. Though  not  read  so  widely  as  he  was  twenty 
years  ago,  he  is  far  more  widely  preached  ;  he  has 
become  a  part  of  the  common  thought  of  the 
church. 

It  was  often  asked  why  Bushnell  did  not  go 
over  to  Unitarianism.  The  question  was  a  natural 
one.  As  early  as  1847,  the  year  of  the  publi- 
cation of  "  Christian  Nurture,"  he  wrote  to  Dr. 
Bartol :  "  I  think  you  will  find  that  I  am  able  to 
appreciate  some  of  the  feelings  and  intellectual 
struggles  of  Unitarianism,  and  to  look  upon  them 
with  such  a  degree  of  sympathy  as  one  who  has 


404  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

suffered  the  like  may  be  expected  to  feel.  I  con- 
sider myself  to  be  an  orthodox  man,  and  yet  I 
think  I  can  state  my  orthodox  faith  in  such  a  way 
that  no  serious  Unitarian  will  conflict  with  me,  or 
feel  that  I  am  beyond  the  terms  of  reason."  His 
four  treatises  separated  him  widely  from  the  ortho- 
doxy of  the  day,  —  a  fact  made  evident  by  un- 
measured criticism.  They  also  seemed  to  favor 
much  for  which  the  earlier  Unitarianism  was  con- 
tending, —  a  fact  it  recognized  with  cordiality. 
Why  did  he  not  cross  the  line  ?  It  is  a  question 
ordinarily  not  to  be  asked  of  a  strong  man ;  he 
does  not  change  his  religion  or  Ms  church  except 
under  the  direst  necessity,  but  follows  St.  Paul's 
advice  as  to  marriage,  and  abides  in  the  state 
wherein  he  is.  Nor  would  any  discerning  Uni- 
tarian have  asked  it  at  the  time  "  God  in  Christ " 
was  published.  If  the  change  had  been  made  on 
the  strength  of  that  book,  it  woidd  necessarily  have 
been  based  —  by  the  very  term  "  Unitarian  "  — 
on  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  So  far  as  Unitarianism 
had  a  Christology,  it  was  Arian  ;  but  if  Bushnell 
departed  in  any  way  from  orthodoxy,  it  was  in 
the  direction  of  Sabellianism,  which  is  as  far  from 
Arianism  as  east  is  from  west.  Had  he  made  the 
change  on  Christological  grounds,  he  would  have 
stultified  himself  and  imposed  on  those  to  whom 
he  went.  There  was  enough  to  flee  from,  but  not 
enough  to  go  to.  In  getting  rid  of  tritheism  he 
would  not  have  escaped  polytheism,  for  this  phrase 
can  as  properly  be  applied   to  the  Arianism  of 


THE   WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  405 

Charming  as  the  term  tritheistic  to  the  Trinity  of 
the  orthodox.1  Had  Channing,  whose  genius  did 
not  lead  to  theology,  adopted  almost  any  view  of 
Christ  except  the  Arian,  the  movement  of  which 
he  was  the  recognized  head  would  have  been  far 
stronger.2 

It   must  not  be    supposed  that  the  Unitarian 

1  "  It  was  not  a  mistake  on  the  part  of  the  orthodox  to  look 
on  Arianism  as  in  reality  an  introduction  of  a  species  of  poly- 
theism into  Christian  theology."  (Fisher,  History  of  Doctrine, 
p.  135.) 

2  "  What  was  Channing's  conception  of  Christ  ?  Christ  was  a 
preexistent  rational  creature,  an  angel  or  spirit  of  some  sort,  who 
had  entered  into  a  human  hody.  He  was  not  even  a  man  except 
so  far  as  His  corporal  part  is  concerned,  but  was  a  creature  from 
some  upper  sphere."     (Fisher,  History  of  Doctrine,  p.  431.) 

Principal  Tulloch  says  (Ency.  Brit.,  "  Arius  ") :  "  The  peculiar 
heresy  known  by  that  name  has  never  assumed  any  influence,  or 
regained,  for  any  length  of  time,  its  influence  in  the  church." 

The  Rev.  Frederick  Henry  Hedge,  D.D.,  one  of  the  ablest  and 
most  learned  theologians  in  the  Unitarian  Communion,  wrote  even 
more  emphatically  :  "  The  Arian  saw  neither  God  nor  man,  nor  a 
God-man,  but  a  hypothetical  being  who  is  different  from  both, — 
a  sheer  invention,  an  unintelligible,  ghostly  chimera,  whom  one 
can  neither  repose  in  as  true  God  nor  sympathize  with  as  genuine 
man.  The  Athanasian  doctrine  preserves  the  humanity  intact, 
and  even  guards  it  with  jealous  care,  leaving  me  at  liberty,  as  my 
spiritual  wants  or  mental  habits  incline,  to  fasten  on  the  human 
or  divine  in  the  hypostatic  union.  The  Catholic  or  Orthodox 
Christology  is  precisely  that  which,  by  the  comprehensiveness  and 
impartiality  of  its  statement,  allows  the  largest  liberty  of  specu- 
lation, and  admits  the  greatest  diversity  of  view.  It  merely  af- 
firms what  every  one  believes,  who  believes  in  Christianity  at  all, 
—  that  God  and  man  wrought  together  in  Christ  for  the  regener- 
ation of  humankind.  .  .  .  The  Arian  doctrine,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  a  rigidly  denned,  abrupt  hypothesis,  intractable,  insoluble  ;  to 
be  taken  bodily,  if  at  all,  and  held  by  an  act  of  volition  as  a  stub- 
born anomaly  which  the  mind  can  neither  historically  adjust  nor 
philosophically  assimilate."     ( Ways  of  the  Spirit,  p.  70.) 


406  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

movement  was  due  to  the  force  with  which  this 
crude  doctrine  pressed  on  the  minds  of  men,  even 
though,  as  Charming  wrote  in  1815,  "A  majority 
of  our  brethren  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  is  more 
than  man."  The  immediate  source  of  the  move- 
ment was  a  reaction  against  the  inhumanity  of 
Hopkins  and  Emmons,  or  more  generally  against 
Calvinism,  however  presented.  In  short,  the 
movement  was  not  theological,  but  humanitarian, 
and  was  incorrectly  named.  If,  instead,  it  had 
been  named  according  to  its  nature,  —  by  some 
other  phrase  than  Unitarian,  always  a  disputed  or 
rather  a  universally  accepted  phrase,  for  no  Trin- 
itarian denies  the  unity  of  God,  —  how  different 
and  possibly  how  much  happier  the  later  history 
of  New  England  theology  might  have  been ;  and 
how  much  better  fitted  to  enter  into  the  concep- 
tions of  God  and  of  humanity  which  the  new  cen- 
tury will  bring  before  us !  At  present  neither  party 
has  yet  a  theism  fitted  to  cope  with  the  questions 
they  will  be  called  on  to  meet. 

As  we  look  back  upon  the  movement  and  ex- 
amine it  in  the  light  of  its  Christology,  it  seems 
strange  that  it  won  any  following ;  but  when  re- 
garded in  the  light  of  its  doctrine  of  man,  it  is 
strange  that  it  was  not  greater.  The  former 
blocked  the  latter,  and  so  it  was  all  the  way 
through,  —  a  cross-play  in  which  one  thing  neu- 
tralized another.  There  was  scarcely  a  criticism 
or  a  denial  that  had  not  some  ground  and  measure 
of  truth  in  it,  but  in  no  case  was  it  worth  the  price 


THE   WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  407 

of  schism,  whether  forced  by  the  Orthodox  party  or 
demanded  by  the  Unitarian.  It  was  a  movement 
that  ought  to  have  been  a  reform  instead  of  a 
revolution.  The  order  of  development  was  broken, 
and  in  the  breach  great  truths  fell  out  of  sight,  or 
were  retained  in  old-time  forms  on  one  side,  and 
ruthlessly  denied  on  the  other  side  ;  in  either  case 
the  truth  suffered.  Bushnell  saw  all  this  ;  saw  how 
just  were  many  of  the  criticisms,  how  necessary 
each  party  was  to  the  other ;  but  he  also  saw  that 
to  have  gone  from  one  to  the  other  would  not  only 
have  been  weak,  but  would  have  defeated  the  end 
which  he  most  desired  to  bring  about,  —  namely,  a 
realization  of  the  truth  on  both  sides.  A  deserter 
in  religion  always  goes  away  empty-handed.  Dr. 
Bartol  did  injustice  to  his  denomination  when  he 
said  that  Bushnell  was  a  "  fish  too  big  for  the  Uni- 
tarian net."  J  It  was  not  that  which  kept  him 
away.  To  a  great  man  no  place  is  small  if  the 
truth  is  there.  He  gave  different  reasons  at  dif- 
ferent times  for  standing  off,  though  never  did 
he  ever  seriously  contemplate  taking  the  step ; 
the  reasons  always  involved  a  question  of  the 
Unitarian  position  on  some  fundamental  doctrine. 
But  the  real  reason  was  a  sub-conscious  dread  of 
schism,  and  a  clear  sense  that  the  germinal  truths 
of  Christianity  are  contained  in  historic  Orthodoxy, 
though  deeply  overlaid  and  fearfully  misstated. 
Hence,  his  whole  work  in  theology  was  one  of 
deliverance    and    recovery   and  restatement.     He 

1  The  Unitarian  Review,  September,  1880,  p.  247. 


408  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

had  an  instinctive  sense  that  if  anything  was  to 
be  done  by  him,  he  must  stay  where  the  truths  are 
and  dig  them  out  and  set  them  in  order,  rather 
than  go  abroad  on  a  crusade  of  denial  under 
doubtfully  inscribed  banners. 

In  a  letter  written  to  Dr.  Bartol  in  1872,  he 
says : — 

"  I  have  a  certain  pity,  as  I  read,  for  what  I 
should  call  your  unstandardliness.  I  think  of  an 
egg  trying  to  get  on  without  a  shell,  and  it  seems 
to  be  a  rather  awkward  predicament.  I  am  very 
fond  of  liberty,  it  is  true,  but  I  should  not  like 
to  have  the  astronomic  worlds  put  up  in  it,  even 
if  it  were  given  them  to  go  by  their  inspirations. 
Liberties  are  good,  inspirations  are  good,  but  I 
like  to  have  some  standard  forces,  to  which  I  can 
advert  when  I  get  tired. 

"  Well,  God  help  you,  as  He,  no  doubt,  will  and 
does.  Here  we  touch  bottom  together,  if  nowhere 
else,  and  it  is  good,  firm  land." 

But  if  Bushnell  did  not  go  to  Unitarianism,  he 
served  what  was  best  and  truest  in  it ;  and  that  it 
had  goodness  and  truth  he  unfailingly  recognized, 
better  than  if  he  had  entered  its  ranks.  Unitari- 
anism was  a  general  and  sj^ecific  denial  of  Calvin- 
ism, but  it  dealt  no  such  blow  as  that  which  came 
from  Bushnell  in  "  Christian  Nurture."  The  denial 
aroused  it  to  self-defense,  but  "  Christian  Nur- 
ture "  induced  its  readers  to  forget  it,  —  a  process 
that  has  been  going  on  ever  since,  until  it  is  no- 
where much  remembered  except  in  scholastic  cir- 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  409 

cles.  So  of  the  atonement ;  Unitarianism  justly 
denounced  the  prevalent  theory,  but  believers  in 
a  doctrine  do  not  drop  it  because  it  is  assailed. 
Bushnell  gave  them  the  "  Moral  View,"  a  theory 
that  satisfies  all  whom  Unitarianism  could  expect 
to  reach.  The  middle  of  the  century  found  the 
doctrine  of  miracles  in  a  weak  condition,  heavily 
attacked  by  critics  and  feebly  defended  by  its 
friends.  Channing  accepted  it.  Theodore  Parker 
omitted  it,  and  suffered  Christianity  to  settle  down 
upon  the  simple  order  of  nature.  Whether  right 
or  not,  the  wrench  to  faith  was  severe  and  pos- 
sibly unnecessary.  Bushnell  opened  up  a  larger 
conception  of  man,  and  a  broader  conception  of 
law  that  not  only  affords  standing  ground  for  hon- 
est doubts,  but  suggests  grounds  of  belief  that  we 
may  all  be  forced  to  accept.  Thus  the  whole  face 
of  Orthodoxy  was  changed,  and  whatever  was  vital 
in  it  was  retained  and  set  to  fresh  use.  A  great 
deal  of  it  was  expelled  by  the  introduction  of  new 
truth.  Total  depravity,  decreed  salvation,  repro- 
bation, a  commercial  atonement,  magical  regener- 
ation, a  mathematical  trinity,  —  these  are  vanish- 
ing along  with  the  inferno  that  tortured  those  who 
rejected  them,  or  had  not  heard  of  them,  and  in- 
stead there  is  getting  to  be  a  theology,  simple, 
humane,  ethical  in  its  main  features,  rational  yet 
spiritual,  natural  and  also  supernatural,  that  con- 
fesses one  God  as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit, 
and  so  holds  to  the  oneness  of  God  and  human- 
ity  in    the    Spirit,  —  a   relation    through  which 


410  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

life  and  hope    and  salvation  are   revealed  to  all 
men. 

It  is  not  denied  that  Unitarianism,  by  its  sincer- 
ity, its  culture,  its  cheerful  piety,  and  profound 
humanity,  has  contributed  to  this  result ;  nor  would 
we  claim  for  Bushnell  a  totality  of  influence.  The 
analysis  of  causes  which  evolution  is  now  teaching- 
forbids  insistence  on  specific  causes ;  change  is  the 
phase  of  a  process  behind  which  lie  innumerable 
causes.  The  most  that  can  be  said  is  that  one 
thing  affects  another.  That  Orthodoxy  and  Uni- 
tarianism have  influenced  each  other  is  as  clear 
as  that  neither  is  wholly  right  nor  wholly  wrong. 
But  the  degree  of  influence  is  a  petty  question, 
and  indicates  an  intellectual  and  moral  condition 
from  which  each  side  should  pray  to  be  delivered. 
The  only  question  worthy  to  be  raised  is  how  to 
reach  that  ideal  of  truth  which  is  higher  than  either 
has  yet  conceived,  the  first  condition  of  the  ques- 
tion being  that  they  shall  not  quarrel  by  the  way, 
nor  sit  down  in  self-satisfaction  as  having  attained. 
Bushnell  made  no  mistake  in  either  respect ;  he 
was  always  kind  and  respectful  to  the  side  he 
would  not  join,  and  thought  only  of  what  might 
be  if  all  could  be  brought  into  that  "  vein  of  com- 
prehensiveness "  which  he  claimed  for  himself.  He 
seems  to  us  to  have  been  as  catholic  as  he  was 
intelligent  in  his  faith,  and  more  deeply  grounded 
in  the  spirit  than  in  the  form  of  his  belief ;  —  not 
a  common  virtue  at  a  time  when  fear  and  intoler- 
ance filled  the  air.     He  seldom  came  nearer  to 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  411 

censure  than  in  the  following  letter  to  Dr.  Bartol, 
written  December,  1858,  in  answer  to  one  in 
which  Dr.  Bartol  states  his  purpose  to  review 
"  Nature  and  the  Supernatural :  "  "  What  I  say 
of  charity  and  liberty  is  in  this  view.  Not  that 
every  man  who  calls  himself  a  liberal,  or  rejoices 
in  the  epithet,  is  therefore  off  the  balance.  He 
is  only  on  the  way  to  be,  and,  holding  on  under 
that  flag,  he  certainly  will  be.  There  is  a  certain 
under-force  in  words,  which  many  make  no  ac- 
count of,  and  which  yet  is  too  strong  to  be  per- 
manently resisted  by  any  body.  Thus  there  is  a 
losing  element  in  the  type  of  the  word  liberal.  I 
found  it  having  finally  an  effect  on  me  which  I 
did  not  like  ;  wondering  not  a  little  that  Jesus, 
so  abundant  and  free  in  the  charities  of  his  life, 
had  yet  the  more  than  human  wisdom  to  assume 
no  airs  of  liberalism.  No  man  or  denomination  of 
men  can  make  a  flag  of  that  word,  I  am  perfectly 
certain,  without  being  injured  by  it.  The  under- 
force  of  it  would  finally  move  mountains.  I  want 
you  to  think  nothing  of  me,  and  everything  of 
truth.  I  don't  ask  you  to  be  liberal  to  me  ;  I  am 
not  so  much  as  that  to  myself.  God  give  you  the 
truth  and  then  the  heart  to  say  what  belongs  to 
truth." 

The  influence  of  Bushnell  on  theology  was  often 
a  matter  of  question  while  he  lived.  "  Christian 
Nurture  "  was  soon  perceived  to  be  a  useful  book, 
but  its  theological  significance  was  not  as  quickly 
detected.    Public  attention  was  so  steadily  directed 


412  HORACE   BUSHNELL 

to  his  heresies  and  "  tendencies  "  that  it  saw  little 
of  his  real  thought.  His  very  gifts  of  imagination 
and  style  made  him  untrustworthy.  But  this  esti- 
mate was  chiefly  due  to  the  fact  that  he  spoke 
slightingly  of  system  and  the  metaphysics  that  went 
with  it.  His  break  with  method  was  greater  than 
with  the  matter  in  hand.  Since  modern  thought 
and  criticism  have  prevailed,  he  has  fared  more 
justly,  and  has  gained  in  standing  as  a  theologian. 
The  criticism  of  to-day  does  not  pause  an  instant 
to  inquire  if  he  was  orthodox  or  not,  and  almost 
as  little  does  it  care  for  his  inconsistencies,  but  for 
impulse  and  tendency  and  general  spirit  which  he 
imparted  to  theological  thought,  it  cares  a  great  deal. 
It  was  not  his  way  to  reject ;  he  was  never  a  come- 
outer ;  to  deny  and  go  away  empty-handed  violated 
his  mental  thriftiness ;  there  must  be  some  other 
way  to  find  the  path  to  truth  than  to  leave  the 
highway  and  strike  into  the  open.  He  first  found 
it  in  his  theory  of  language  ;  that  put  him  into  the 
atmosphere  of  the  spirit,  and  also  into  the  world 
of  unfolding  fact  which  had  begun  to  move  rapidly 
from  one  phase  to  another  and  always  into  grow- 
ing light,  —  in  short,  into  the  world  of  modern 
thought.  Almost  every  page  of  his  writings  is  true 
to  this  theory ;  he  suggests  his  idea,  paints  it,  makes 
one  feel  it,  and  seldom  goes  farther  than  to  say,  — 
the  truth  lies  hereabout ;  find  it  for  yourself,  and 
then  you  will  know  it.  It  is  the  achievement  of 
Bushnell  that  he  introduced  this  method  of  deal- 
ing with  theology  into  New  England  in  the  actual 


THE  WORK  OF  BUSHNELL  413 

form  of  treatise  and  sermon ;  it  may  be  called  the 
method  of  suggestion.  It  would  have  come  in 
time,  but  it  might  have  been  too  late  for  Ortho- 
doxy. 

There  is  little  occasion  to  compare  Bushnell  with 
the  great  doctors  of  theology  before  him,  but  he 
had  what  they  had  not,  —  a  unifying  law  of  thought 
that  delivered  him  out  of  the  antinomies  into 
which  they  led  the  church  while  seeking  to  deliver 
it  from  existing  ones.  He  was  a  theologian  as 
Copernicus  was  an  astronomer ;  he  changed  the 
point  of  view,  and  thus  not  only  changed  every- 
thing, but  pointed  the  way  toward  substantial 
unity  in  theological  thought.  He  was  not  exact, 
but  he  put  God  and  man  and  the  world  into  a 
relation  that  thought  can  accept  while  it  goes  on 
to  state  it  more  fully  and  with  ever-growing  know- 
ledge. Other  thinkers  were  moving  in  the  same 
direction  ;  he  led  the  movement  in  New  England, 
and  wrought  out  a  great  deliverance.  It  was  a 
work  of  superb  courage.  Hardly  a  theologian  in 
his  denomination  stood  by  him,  and  nearly  all 
pronounced  against  him. 

The  recognition  of  Bushnell  will  grow  as  the 
theological  crisis  passes  and  leaves  the  New  Eng- 
land theology  of  the  past  standing  out  in  its  full 
and  bare  proportions,  and  in  contrast  with  that 
which  seems  to  be  taking  shape  under  conceptions  of 
God  and  man  and  evil  and  redemption  that  accord 
with  modern  thought  and  with  the  great  law  by 
Which  all  things  are  interpreted.     Then  it  will  be 


414  HORACE  BUSHNELL 

seen  how  pivotal  was  his  work  in  a  transition  that 
will  grow  more  significant  as  the  contrast  deepens 
between  what  was  driven  out  and  what  was  brought 
in.  It  will  be  said  of  him  as  Harnack  has  said  of 
Luther :  "  He  liberated  the  natural  life,  and  the 
natural  order  of  things." 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Abbott,  Lyman,  reference  to  his 
works,  386  (note). 

Adams,  William,  147. 

Agassiz,  Louis,  212. 

Age  of  Homespun,  The,  12,  164,  304, 
305. 

Albro,  John  A.,  147. 

Alcibiades,  223. 

Allen,  A.  V.  G.,  quoted  on  Bushnell, 
378. 

American  Politics  (sermon),  59,  60. 

Anabaptism,  71,  389. 

Andover,  Bushnell's  address  at,  in 
1839,  57. 

Andover  Theological  Seminary  invites 
Bushnell  to  give  address  at  gradu- 
ating exercises,  115. 

Anselm,  quoted  on  the  death  of  Christ, 
247. 

Anti-slavery  movement  and  its  con- 
nection with  theological  questions, 
44,  45,  61. 

Arguments  for  Discourses  on  Chris- 
tian Nurture,  95. 

Arianism,  158  (note),  390,  391,  393 
(note),  404,  405  (notes). 

Arminianism,  36,  37,  39,  40,  240,  387. 

Arnold,  Dr.,  321. 

Association,  General.  See  General 
Association. 

Athanasius,  157  (note),  405  (note). 

Atonement,  Bushnell's  view  of,  139, 
140,  242-271,  286,  287,  359,  401,  402, 
408,  409;  earlier  doctrines  of,  241, 
242,  250,  387.  See  also  Grotian 
theory,  and  Incarnation. 

Atonement,  The,  discourse  at  Cam- 
bridge, 131. 

Bacon,   George,   his   friendship  with 

Bushnell,  342,  348. 
Bacon,  Leonard,  his  criticism  of  God 

in  Christ,  and  Christ  in  Theology, 


142,  143,  152,  153,  164-166;  resolu- 
tion presented  to  the  General  Asso- 
ciation, 184, 185. 

Baptism,  71,  83. 

Baptized  children,  their  relation  to 
the  church,  71  (note),  83. 

Barbarism,  the  First  Danger  (ser- 
mon), 135,  301,  358. 

Bartol,  Dr.  Cyrus  A.,  Bushnell's  cor- 
respondence with,  116,  135-142, 
166-169,  173,  174,  192,  232,  348-350, 
400  (note),  403,  404,  408,  411;  his 
judgment  of  Work  and  Play,  295; 
his  estimate  of  Bushnell,  358-363, 
407. 

Baxter,  Richard,  quoted  on  creeds, 
180;  on  reconciliation  with  God, 
257. 

Beach,  David  N.,  his  description  of 
Bushnell  as  a  preacher,  288-292. 

Beecher,  Lyman,  3,  42,  147. 

Beethoven  Society,  Yale  College, 
founded  by  Bushnell,  17;  his  ad- 
dress before,  164. 

Bellamy,  Joseph,  theologian  of  Con- 
necticut, 3;  writings,  37,  38. 

Bellows,  H.  W.,  192. 

Brace,  Charles  Loring,  his  description 
of  Bushnell's  preaching,  277,  278. 

Bread  Loaf  Inn,  Bushnell  spends  sum- 
mer at,  340,  342. 

Brooke,  Stopford  A.,  quoted  on  the 
power  of  Jesus,  50. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  sermon  on  Gold  and 
the.  Calf,  55;  reference  to  the  Uni- 
tarian schism,  387  (note). 

Brown,  Sir  Thomas,  385. 

Bushnell,  Abraham,  grandfather  of 
Horace,  5. 

Bushnell,  Dotha  Bishop,  mother  of 
Horace,  5,  7,  8-10,  22,  334. 

Bushnell,  Ensign,  father  of  Horace, 
5,  7,  8. 


418 


INDEX 


Bushnell,  Francis,  ancestor  of  Hor- 
ace, 5. 

Bushnell,  George,  brother  of  Horace, 
quotation  from,  concerning  the 
home  training,  7,  8. 

Bushnell,  Horace,  reference  to  his  ad- 
dress, Historical  Estimate  of  Con- 
necticut, 3;  his  relation  to  the  New 
England  school  of  theologians  and 
place  among  the  religious  leaders  of 
America,  4;  his  birth,  4, 5;  lineage, 
5 ;  home  training  and  early  occupa- 
tions, 5-14;  college  life,  17-20; 
teaching,  editorial  work,  law  study, 
20;  tutorship  at  Yale,  religious  ex- 
perience, 21-29 ;  study  for  the  min- 
istry, 27-29;  ordination  as  pastor  of 
the  North  Church,  Hartford,  33,  34; 
marriage  to  Mary  Apthorp,  35;  de- 
velopment of  his  theological  posi- 
tion, 35,  41-48;  his  relations  with 
Dr.  N.  W.  Taylor,  40^14;  article  in 
The  Christian  Freeman  on  voting 
for  unworthy  candidates  for  office, 
44,  45;  ministry  from  1833  to  1845, 
51-64;  extract  from  twentieth  an- 
niversary sermon,  53,  54;  article  on 
Revivals  of  Religion,  56;  criticism 
of  his  theology,  56,  57,  59,  63,  93-95, 
107,  116;  domestic  sorrow,  56,  61; 
ill  health,  56-59,  64;  his  position  in 
political  matters,  59-61;  invitation 
to  presidency  of  Middlebury  College, 
60;  honors  from  several  colleges, 
60;  lecturing  tours.  61;  work  for 
the  Christian  Alliance,  61,  62; 
breakdown  in  health,  64;  journey 
to  Europe,  64,  67;  Christian  Nur- 
ture, 67-97;  criticism  provoked  by 
the  work,  91-95;  What  does  Dr. 
Bushnell  mean  t  94,  143,  146;  re- 
views by  Dr.  Tyler,  Dr.  Hodge, 
and  Dr.  Nevin,  94;  Bushnell's 
reply,  94,  95;  theory  of  language 
and  theological  expression,  101- 
109;  God  in  Christ,  113-131,  142- 
153;  year  1848  central  point  in  his 
life,  113;  addresses  before  the  the- 
ological schools  in  Cambridge,  An- 
dover,  and  New  Haven,  115-131; 
friendship  and  correspondence  with 
Dr.  C.  A.  Bartol,  135-142;  at- 
tacks upon  him  for  opinions  ex- 
pressed in  God  in  Christ,  142-153; 


Christ  in  Theology,  153-159;  various 
addresses,  163,  164;  Dr.  Bacon's  es- 
timate of  his  books,  104-166;  letters 
to  friends,  166-169,  172-178;  his 
standing  among  the  theologians, 
169-174;  withdrawal  of  his  church 
from  the  Consociation,  150, 171, 172; 
decline  of  health,  174,  175;  journey 
to  the  West,  175 ;  friendship  for  Dr. 
Finney,  175;  description  of  Niagara, 
175, 176;  summing  up  of  his  religious 
experience,  176-178;  sermon  review- 
ing twenty  years'  ministry,  181-183; 
renewed  attack  of  the  Fairfield  West 
Association,  183-186;  final  disposi- 
tion of  the  case  against  him,  186- 
193;  quotation  from  Sermons  for  the 
New  Life,  196, 204  ;  travel  in  search 
of  health,  in  Europe,  the  West,  and 
California,  197-202  ;  activity  in  es- 
tablishing the  University  of  Cali- 
fornia, 202,  203;  Moral  Uses  of 
Dark  Things,  200  ;  Nature  and  the 
Supernatural,  Spiritual  Dislodg- 
ments,  203,  204;  associate  pastors, 
204;  resignation  of  pastorate,  and 
journey  to  the  West,  204,  205;  re- 
turn to  Hartford,  205 ;  analysis  of 
Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  209- 
233  ;  of  The  Vicarious  Sacrifice,  237- 
271  ;  as  a  preacher,  275-292, 305  ;  his 
essays  and  addresses,  295-326  ;  as 
a  publicist,  300-303 ;  his  reading, 
320,  321 ;  his  home  life  as  described 
by  his  daughter,  329-337  ;  last  visit 
to  New  Preston,  333,  334  ;  kindness 
to  young  ministers,  334,  335;  last 
days,  337-351 ;  estimates  of  his  work 
and  character,  by  Austin  Phelps, 
C.  A.  Bartol,  Thomas  M.  Clark, 
Joseph  Twichell,  Austin  Dunham, 
N.  H.  Egleston,  Washington  Glad- 
den, 355-375  ;  review  of  his  work 
and  influence,  379-414. 

Bushnell,  Mary  Apthorp,  wife  of 
Horace,  35. 

Bushnell,  Molly  Ensign,  grandmother 
of  Horace,  5. 

Bushnell  homestead  and  surroundings, 
New  Preston,  Conn.,  5-7,  333,  334. 

Bushnell  Park,  Hartford  Conn.,  the 
result  of  Bushnell's  efforts,  13,  342, 
348,  350,  351,  368,  369. 

Butler,  Bishop,  287. 


INDEX 


419 


C.  C.  (pseudonym).  See  Chese- 
brough, A.  S. 

Calvinism,  30,  39,  40,  72,  73,  239,  391, 
406. 

Cambridge  Platform  of  1648,  71. 

Campbell,  John  McLeod,  quoted  on 
Calvinism,  239  (note) ;  on  the  atone- 
ment, 242  (note) ;  on  the  life  of 
Christ,  274. 

Capacity  for  Religion  extirpated  by 
Disuse,  The  (sermon),  256,  281. 

Capitol,  Hartford,  Conn.,  Bushnell's 
interest  in,  342,  348,  368. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted  on  the  uses 
of  great  men,  2. 

Casuistry  superseded  by  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  282,  283. 

"  Catholicus,"  accuses  Bushnell  of 
heresy,  63. 

Channing,  William  Ellery,  55,  362, 
404-406,  409. 

Charity,  contrasted  with  liberality, 
225. 

Chesebrough,  A.  S.,  his  defence  of 
Bushnell,  146,  153,  154,  167  (note) ; 
friendship  and  correspondence  with, 
169,  172,  173,  190,  191,  343,  345. 

Childhood,  quotations  on,  from  Horace 
E.  Scudder,  66 ;  from  George  L. 
Prentiss,  90. 

Children,  their  place  in  the  church, 
67-81,  83,  90. 

Christ,  divinity  of,  Bushnell's  sermon 
on,  before  the  General  Association 
of  Connecticut,  116-128. 

Christ,  nature  of,  141,  156-158,  224- 
229.  See  also  Atonement,  Incarna- 
tion, Trinity. 

Christ  and  his  Salvation  (volume  of 
sermons),  282. 

Christ  in  Theology,  circumstances  of 
its  production,  153-157;  Dr.  Bacon's 
judgment  of,  165  ;  moves  Fairfield 
West  Association  to  renewed  ef- 
forts against  Bushnell,  170  ;  omitted 
by  the  author  from  new  edition  of 
his  works,  348 ;  referred  to  by 
Washington  Gladden,  375. 

Christ  the  Form  of  the  Soul  (sermon), 
114. 

Christian  Alliance,  62. 

Christian  consciousness,  145. 

Christian  Nurture,  11,  14,  67-97,  116, 
329,  360,  3S9,  408. 


Christian  Register,  its  attitude  toward 

Bushnell,  63. 
Christian  Trinity  a  Practical  Truth, 

127. 
Church  and  State,  separation  of,  368. 
Church  unity,  62,  63. 
Civil  service  reform,  Bushnell  a  fore- 
■    runner  of,  60. 

Clark,   Thomas  M.,  his  characteriza- 
tion of  Bushnell,  363-368. 
Clarke,  William  Newton,  quoted   on 

theology,  294. 
Clay,  Henry,  his  course  criticised  by 

Bushnell,  61. 
Clement,  quoted,  222. 
Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  influence  of 

his  works  upon  Bushnell,  29,  46-48, 

209,  210,  381,  394. 
Colleges  in  the  West,  importance  of, 

301. 
Commencement  address  of  Bushnell 

at  Western  Reserve  College,  61. 
Congregational    usage,    independence 

of  the  local  church  in,  392  (note). 
Connecticut,     "  mother     of     theolo- 
gians," 3. 
Consociation  of  churches,  148-151, 171, 

172. 
Conversion,  73,  74,  82,  390. 
Copernican  system,  221. 
Creeds,  1G9,  180,  392. 
Crisis  of  the  Church,  The,  Bushnell's 

first  published  sermon,  51,  52. 
Criticus  Criticorum  (pseudonym).   See 

Chesebrough,  A.  S. 

Dana,  James  D.,  221  (note). 

Davenport,  John,  one  of  the  founders 
of  Connecticut,  3;  ancestor  of  Mrs. 
Hoi'ace  Bushnell,  35. 

Definition,  love  of,  among  the  New 
England  theologians,  101,  102. 

Degrees  conferred  on  Bushnell  by 
New  England  colleges,  60. 

Dignity  of  Human  Nature  shown  from 
its  Ruins  (sermon),  281. 

Discipleship,  law  of,  246. 

Dissolving  of  Doubts,  The,  sermon  by 
Bushnell,  analysis  of,  26,  27  ;  refer- 
ence to,  by  D.  N.  Beach,  291. 

Divinity  schools,  of  Cambridge,  etc. 
See  Harvard  Divinity  School,  etc. 

Dogma  and  Spirit,  address  at  Andover, 
128-131. 


420 


INDEX 


Dorner,  Dr.,  227  (note). 

Drew,  S.  S.,  quoted  on  Bushnell  as  a 
theologian,  275. 

Dudleian  lecture,  by  Bushnell,  170. 

Dunham,  Austin,  quoted  on  Bushnell's 
influence  in  Hartford,  370. 

Durant,  Henry,  24. 

Duty  not  measured  by  our  own  Abil- 
ity (sermon),  52,  276. 

Dwight,  Timothy,  prominent  among 
Connecticut  theologians,  3,  4,  39, 
152 ;  his  conception  of  the  atone- 
ment, 241,  399. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  the  elder,  his 
birth,  3  ;  work  in  Connecticut,  3, 
4 ;  analysis  of  his  theological  system, 
35-38;  the  Enfield  sermon,  36  ;  con- 
troversy on  ability,  53  ;  revivals,  75  ; 
his  ending  of  union  of  Church  and 
State,  95  ;  "  improvements  in  the- 
ology," 187  ;  his  treatment  of  mira- 
cles, 209  ;  of  the  will,  214  ;  of  di- 
vine sovereignty,  239,  240 ;  his 
gifts  as  a  naturalist,  300  ;  decline  of 
his  authority  as  a  theologian,  391, 
392. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  the  younger, 
prominent  among  Connecticut  the- 
ologians, 3,  39;  his  conception  of 
Christ's  work,  188,  241,  399. 

Efficiency  of  the  Passive  Virtues, 
The  (sermon),  282. 

Egleston,  N.  H.,  quoted  on  Bushnell's 
power  in  Hartford,  370,  371. 

Election,  doctrine  of,  74. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  his  similarity 
of  thought  with  Bushnell  on  certain 
points,  295,  298. 

Emmons,  Nathanael,  theologian,  of 
Connecticut,  3,  37  ;  writings,  37,  39  ; 
his  doctrine  of  prayer,  74 ;  inhu- 
manity of  his  theology,  406. 

Enfield  sermon  of  Jonathan  Edwards, 
36. 

Essence  of  Christianity,  article  by 
Ullman,  141. 

Evangelical  Alliance,  62. 

Every  Man's  Life  a  Plan  of  God 
(sermon),  55,  281,  282. 

Evolution,  212,  216,  323,  344. 

Fairbairn,  A.  M.,  quoted  oa  theology, 
112. 


Fairfield  West  Association,  its  treat- 
ment of  Bushnell,  150, 164,  170-172, 
183-186. 

Faith,  justification  by,  259. 

"Fall,  The,"  Bushnell's  belief  con- 
cerning, 253;  keynote  of  preaching 
in  Bushnell's  day,  285;  subject  of 
dispute  between  Unitarian  and  Or- 
thodox Churches,  390. 

Family,  The,  60,  77,  79,  80-83. 

Fast  Day  discourse  of  Bushnell  in 
1844  used  as  a  campaign  document, 
61. 

Fasting  and  Temptation  of  Jesus, 
The  (sermon),  283. 

Fisher,  George  P.,  quoted  on  miracles, 
210;  reference  to  his  Grounds  of 
Theislic  Belief,  231  (note);  reference 
to  his  History  of  Christian  Doc- 
trine, 250  (note);  quoted  on  the 
Unitarian  controversy,  390  (note); 
on  Arianism,  405  (note);  on  Chan- 
ning's  conception  of  Christ,  405 
(note). 

Fiske,  John,  reference  to  his  Through 
Nature  to  God,  106. 

Fitch,  Eleazar  T.,  3. 

Forgiveness  and  Law,  243,  340,  341- 
345. 

Founders  Great  in  their  Unconscious- 
ness, address  in  New  York,  163; 
quotation  from,  298. 

Free  Soil  Party,  45. 

Fugitive  Slave  Law,  45,  167. 

Gambold,  Bishop,  quoted,  378. 

Garrison,  William  Lloyd,  mobbing  of, 
the  occasion  of  Bushnell's  first  pub- 
lished sermon,  51,  52,  276. 

General  Association  of  Connecticut, 
Bushnell's  sermon  before,  on  the 
Divinity  of  Christ,  116-128  ;  action 
in  regard  to  charges  of  heresy 
against  Bushnell,  150,  151,  170-172, 
184,  185. 

Generation,  eternal,  doctrine  of,  158. 

Gibbs,  Josiah  Willard,  100  ;  Bushnell's 
indebtedness  to,  104  (note);  quoted, 
288. 

Gladden,  Washington,  his  associations 
with  and  estimate  of  Bushnell,  13, 
371-375. 

God,  nature  of,  228.  See  also  Atone- 
ment. 


INDEX 


421 


God  in  Christ,  Dr.  Taylor's  reception 
of  the  book,  43;  theological  opin- 
ions expressed  in  it  subject  Bush- 
nell  to  criticism,  107 ;  circumstances 
of  its  production  and  outline  of  its 
theology,  113-131;  discussion  of,  in 
the  correspondence  of  Bushnell  and 
Dr.  Bartol,  13G-140;  reception  by 
the  religious  press,  divinity  schools, 
and  theological  associations,  142- 
153;  influence  on  Washington  Glad- 
den, 375;  permanent  service  to 
theology,  392. 

God's  Way  with  a  Soul,  Bushnell's 
few  notes  for  an  autobiography 
under  this  title,  379,  380. 

Goethe,  Bushnell's  reading  of,  340, 
341. 

Goodrich,  Chauncey  A.,  3,  146,  147. 

Goodwin,  Henry,  146,  167. 

Gordon,  George  A.,  quoted,  on  Bush- 
nell and  Kant,  103  (note) ;  on  rela- 
tion of  mankind  to  Christ,  248 
(note);  reference  to  his  The  Christ 
of  To-day,  386  (note). 

"Gospel  of  Christ,  superior  precep- 
tive morality  of,"  282,  283. 

Gospel  of  the  Face,  The  (sermon),  372. 

"  Great  Awakening,"  72. 

Great  men,  quotation  from  Carlyle 
concerning,  2. 

Great  Scheidegg,  Bushnell's  experi- 
ence on,  317-319. 

Greek  Church,  prominence  given  in  it 
to  metaphysical  conceptions,  37. 

Grotian  theory  of  the  atonement,  39, 
121,  399. 

Growth  of  Law,  address  at  Tale  Col- 
lege, 63,  297,  298,  301. 

"  Half-way  Covenant,"  71. 
Happiness  and  Joy  (sermon),  282. 
Harnack,  Adolph,  quoted  on  Tertul- 

lian,  32;   on  Luther,  414. 
Harris,   George,   quoted,   227   (note), 

401  (note). 
Hartford,  Conn.,  its  indebtedness  to 

Bushnell,  368-371. 
Hartford  Central  Association  refuses 

to  try  Bushnell  for  heresy,  149,  150; 

demand   that  it   be  excluded  from 

the  general  body,  183-185;  minority 

form  new  association,  191. 
Harvard   College    confers  degree   of 


D.  D.  upon  Bushnell,  60 ;  invites 
him  to  give  anniversary  addresses, 
359. 

Harvard  Divinity  School  invites  Bush- 
nell to  give  address  at  graduating 
exercises,  115,  359. 

Hawes,  Joel,  his  opposition  to  Bush- 
nell, 170 ;  reconciliation  with,  191 
(note),  192. 

Hedge,  Frederic  Henry,  193,  405 
(note). 

Helmer,  C.  D.,  associate  pastor  with 
Bushnell,  204. 

Heredity,  82. 

Heresy  charged  against  Bushnell,  56, 
57,  59,  63,  67,  93-95,  107,  116,  142- 
153,  169-172,  183-193. 

Historical  Estimate  of  Connecticut, 
address  before  the  state  legislature, 
3,  164,  302. 

Hodge,  A.  A.,  quoted  on  the  atone- 
ment, 242  (note). 

Hodge,  Charles,  his  criticism  of  Chris- 
tian Nurture,  82  (note),  94  ;  of  God 
in  Christ,  147. 

Holy  Spirit,  Bushnell's  proposed 
treatise  on,  230. 

Homiletic  value  of  Bushnell's  ser- 
mons, 284,  285. 

Hooker,  Richard,  quoted,  223. 

Hooker,  Thomas,  3. 

Hopkins,  Mark,  373. 

Hopkins,  Samuel,  3;  writings,  37,  38; 
his  doctrine  of  sin,  44;  of  baptism, 
71;  of  prayer,  74;  of  divine  sov- 
ereignty, 240 ;  decline  of  his  au- 
thority as  a  theologian,  391,  392; 
inhumanity  of  his  theology,  406. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  quoted  on  Maurice 
and  Bushnell,  292. 

Immortality,  324. 

In  Memoriam,  quoted,  16;  reference 

to,  157. 
Incarnation,    only    meeting-point    of 

Unitarianism  and  Orthodoxy,  141; 

Bushnell's  transfer  of  thought  from 

the  atonement  to  the  incarnation, 

286,    287,   343,   344,  396,  399,   400, 

402. 
Individualism,  70,  72,  76,  80-82, 86,  94. 
Insight  of  Love,  The  (sermon),  282. 
Inspiration,  its  Modes  and  Uses  •  .  ■ , 

unfinished  treatise,  347. 


422 


INDEX 


Jesus,   quotation   fiom    Stopford    A. 

Brooke  on,  50.    See  also  Christ. 
Jowett,  Benjamin,  quoted,  42. 
Judaism,  relation  of  Christ  to,  259, 

260. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  similarity  of  thought 

with  Bushnell,  103  (note). 
Kingdom  of  God,  258. 
Kirk,  Edward  N.,  147. 

Language,  nature  of,  102-105;  inade- 
quacy to  complete  expression  of 
theological  truth,  105,  106. 

Latin  theology,  J.  M.  Wilson  quoted 
on,  236. 

Le  Conte,  Joseph,  quoted,  162. 

Lecturing  tours  of  Bushnell,  61. 

Liberality,  contrasted  with  charity, 
225. 

Life,  or  the  Lives  (essay),  298-300, 
316. 

Lincoln's  address  at  Gettysburg,  302. 

Linsley,  Joel  H.,  171. 

Litchfield  County  Centennial  Celebra- 
tion, Bushnell's  sermon  at,  304. 

"  Literature  of  power,"  Bushnell's 
sermons  belong  to,  287  ;  De  Quincey 
author  of  the  phrase,  321;  Bushnell 
well-read  in  this  literature,  321. 

Living  Subjects  (volume  of  sermons), 
341. 

Living  to  God  in  Small  Things  (ser- 
mon), 55. 

Logos,  147, 158  (note),  248  (note),  350. 

Lord,  John,  anecdote  of,  38  (note). 

Luther,  Martin,  58,  242  (note),  414. 

McClure,  David,  147. 

McEwen,  Dr.,  of  New  London,  his 
account  of  Bushnell's  religious  ex- 
perience, 23-25. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  his  theory  of  hu- 
man society  anticipated  by  Bush- 
nell, 297,  298. 

Martineau,  James,  quoted,  208  ;  Bush- 
nell's agreement  with,  213. 

Massachusetts  Sunday  School  Society, 
publishes  a  work  by  Bushnell,  92, 93. 

Mather,  Cotton,  his  Magnolia,  71. 

Maurice,  Frederic  D.,  quoted  on 
theology,  250  (note);  Thomas 
Hughes'  opinion  of,  292. 

Melanchthon,  46. 


Methodism,  a  protest  against  Calvin- 
ism,  240. 

Middlebury  College,  Bushnell  invited 
to  the  presidency  of,  CO. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  his  advocacy  of 
woman  suffrage,  319. 

Milton,  John,  385. 

Ministerial  Association  dissents  from 
views  expressed  in  Christian  Nur- 
ture, 92. 

Ministers,  early  New  England,  general 
influence  and  activity  of,  368. 

Miracles,  209,  210,  223,  224,  227-232, 
387,  393-398,  409. 

Missions,  home,  importance  of,  301. 

Missouri  Compromise  denounced  by 
Bushnell,  61. 

Moral  Uses  of  Dark  Things,  200,  320- 
326. 

"  Mother  of  theologians,"  Connecti- 
cut so  called,  3. 

Mozley,  Canon,  sermon  on  the  Rever- 
sal of  Human  Judgments,  55 ;  refer- 
ence to  his  Bampton  Lectures,  231 
(note)  ;  his  sermons,  287. 

Mulford,  Elisha,  his  conception  of  the 
nation,  301. 

Music,  Bushnell  on,  316-318. 

Naturalism,  in  Bushnell's  work,  82, 
84,  94;  as  criticised  by  Bushnell  in 
Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  210, 
211;  the  supernatural  needed  as  a 
corrective  of,  229. 

Nature  and  the  Supernatural,  refer- 
ences to,  29,  43,  299,  395-398. 

Nevin,  J.  W.,  his  criticism  of  Chris- 
tian Nurture,  94. 

New  England  mind,  character  of,  287, 
288. 

New  England  school  of  theologians, 
3,  4,  35-48,  91. 

New  England  Society  of  New  York, 
Bushnell's  address  before,  163,  298. 

"  New  England  theory,"  188. 

New  Haven  controversy,  34,  93. 

New  Haven  Divinity  School,  character 
of  its  teaching,  28,  29,  40,  41,  73,  93, 
251;  invites  Bushnell  to  give  ad- 
dress at  graduating  exercises,  115; 
criticises  God  in  Christ,  143. 

"  New  Light  "  party,  68. 

New  Preston,  Conn.,  home  of  the 
Bushnell  family,  5-7,  333,  334. 


INDEX 


423 


Newman,  John  Henry,  55,  287,  324. 

Nicene  Creed,  128,  155,  156-158,  192, 
391,  393  (note). 

Norfolk,  Conn.,  Bushnell  spends  sum- 
mer at,  345. 

North  Adams,  Bushnell's  recommen- 
dation for  a  park  in,  13,  374. 

North  Association  of  Hartford  County, 
its  charge  against  Bushnell,  93. 

North  Church,  Hartford,  Bushnell 
ordained  pastor  of,  33,  34. 

Norton,  Andrews,  390. 

Norton,  John,  188. 

"  Omicron,"  signature  of  critical  ar- 
ticles on  God  in  Christ,  143, 
387. 

On  the  Mount  (sermon),  291. 

Oregon  Question,  The,  301,  302. 

Our  Advantage  in  Being  Finite  (ser- 
mon), 374,  375. 

Our  Gospel  a  Gift  to  the  Imagination 
(essay),  260. 

Our  Obligations  to  the  Dead,  memo- 
rial oration  at  Yale,  302,  303. 

Pain,  324. 

Paley,  William,  Bushnell's  attitude 
towards,  394. 

Park,  Edwards  A.,  71. 

Parker,  E.  P.,  reference  to  his  address 
on  The  Hartford  Central  Associa- 
tion and  the  Bushnell  Controversy, 
148  (note) ;  extract  from  the  ad- 
dress, 170,  171. 

Parker,  Theodore,  meeting  with  Bush- 
nell, 64  ;  his  sermon  on  The  Tran- 
sient and  the  Permanent  in  Religion, 
116  (note) ;  position  on  miracles, 
409. 

Patripassianism,  267,  268,  393. 

Patton,  William  W.,  account  of  a  con- 
versation witli  Bushnell,  107,  108 ; 
reply  to  the  demand  of  the  Fairfield 
West  Association,  184. 

Paul,  St.,  his  view  of  the  trinity,  124, 
125. 

Pfleiderer,  Otto,  quoted  on  the  Logos, 
248,  249. 

Phelps,  Austin,  his  meeting  with  Bush- 
nell, 342  ;  his  estimate  of  Bushnell's 
character,  355-358. 

Phi  Beta  Kappa  oration  of  Bushnell  in 
Cambridge,  359. 


Pilgrim  Fathers,  Bushnell's  address 
on,  298. 

Plato,  223,  343. 

Poetry,  quotation  on,  from  Work  and 
Play,  383,  3S4. 

Pope,  Bushnell'3  letter  to  the,  62. 

Porter,  Noah,  Bushnell's  obligation  to, 
167  (note);  reply  to  the  Fairfield 
West  Association,  184  ;  his  charac- 
terization of  Bushnell,  354. 

Power  of  an  Endless  Life,  The  (ser- 
mon), 282. 

Prayer,  articles  on,  by  Bushnell,  341. 

Preaching,  Bushnell's,  275-292 ;  char- 
acter of,  in  Bushnell's  day,  285,  286; 
qualifications  for,  305-315. 

Prentiss,  George  L.,  place  of  children 
in  the  church,  72,  90. 

Presbyterian  critics  on  The  Vicarious 
Sacrifice,  270,  271. 

Presbyterianism,  148. 

Pretention,  doctrine  of,  36. 

Progressive.  Orthodoxy,  quoted  on  the 
atonement,  251. 

Propitiation,  264,  265,  267,  270. 

Protestant  League,  61,  62. 

Ptolemaic  astronomy,  72. 

Pubticist,  Bushnell  as  a,  300-303. 

Pulpit  Talent  (essay),  305-312. 

Punishment,  eternal,  Bushnell's  views 
on,  255-258,  360. 

Purgatorial  restorationism,  256. 

Puritan,  The,  criticises  Bushnell, 
63. 

Pynchon's  Meritorious  Price  of  our 
Redemption,  188. 

Quietism,  113. 

Reform  against  Nature,  The,  319,  320. 

Religious  Music  (address),  164,  315- 
319. 

Revivals,  23,  69,  70,  72,  73-76,  80,  81, 
85,  91,  387-389. 

"  Revivals  of  Religion,"  article  in  the 
Christian  Spectator,  56,  67. 

Rhythm,  the  most  marked  quality  of 
Bushnell's  style,  315,  316  ;  quotation 
on,  from  Work  and  Play,  383,  384. 

Ripton,  Vt.,  Bushnell  spends  sum- 
mer at,  340,  341. 

Robertson,  Frederick  W.,  26,  55 ; 
quotations  from,  134,  157  (note),  his 
conception  of  Christ,  271 ;    charge 


424 


INDEX 


of  plagiarism  of  Bushnell's  sermon, 

Unconscious  Influence,  281  (note). 
Rome,  Church  of,  62,  83. 
Rothe,  Richard,  quoted  on  miracles, 

223  (note). 
Royce,    Josiah,    quotation    from    his 

Studies  of  Good  and  Evil,  268. 

Sabellian  tendencies  of  Bushnell,  120, 
121,  123,  126,  147,  155,  157,  159,  176, 
267,  268,  404. 

Sacrifices,  Bushnell's  view  of  the 
meaning  and  use  of,  259-262. 

Sadducees,  210. 

Saybrook  Platform,  148. 

Schleiermacher,  46,  119,  209,  210. 

Science,  Bushnell's  interest  in,  844. 

Scudder,  Horace  E.,  quoted  on  child- 
hood, 66. 

Sermons,  by  Bushnell,  55,  56,  280-284, 
302. 

Sermons  for  the  New  Life,  55,  142, 
281,  347. 

Sermons  on  Living  Subjects,  284,  341. 

Sin,  doctrines  of,  37-39,  42,  44 ;  Bush- 
nell's position  on,  82,  142,  216-224, 
313  ;  subject  of  dispute  between 
Unitarian  and  Orthodox  Churches, 
390. 

Slavery,  Bushnell  on,  297,  300,  301; 
Goldwin  Smith  on,  297. 

Sleep,  324. 

Smalley,  John,  3. 

Smith,  George  Adam,  calls  Bushnell 
"  the  preacher's  preacher,"  279. 

Smith,  Goldwin,  on  slavery,  297. 

Society,  human,  an  evolution,  299. 

Socrates,  remark  of,  on  sin,  42  (note). 

Sophists,  210. 

Sovereignty,  divine,  doctrine  of,  239, 
240. 

Spalding,  George  B.,  associate  pastor 
with  Bushnell,  204. 

Spoils  system,  Bushnell's  position  in 
regard  to,  60. 

Stability  of  Change,  Commencement 
address  at  Western  Reserve  College, 
61. 

"  Standing  Order,"  of  churches,  dis- 
memberment of,  240, 368. 

State,  Puritan  conception  of,  60,  61. 

Stearns,  William  A.,  147. 

Stevens,GeorgeB.,  quoted  on  St.  Paul, 
381. 


Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  quoted  on 
free  agency,  70  (note). 

Stuart,  Moses,  390. 

Sumner,  Charles,  358. 

Supernatural,  Bushnell's  lectures  on, 
170;  discussion  of,  in  Nature  and 
the  Supernatural,  211-218,  222-224, 
227-233;  Bushnell's  general  position 
on,  382,  393-398. 

Supernaturalism,  142. 

Symbols,  uses  and  dangers  of,  266. 

Taylor,  Father,  362,  anecdote  of, 
362. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  385. 

Taylor,  N.  W.,  3;  instructor  of  Bush- 
nell, 27,  28;  writings,  37,  38,  40; 
doctrinal  position  and  relations  with 
Bushnell,  40-45,  101,  152;  his  the- 
ory of  the  atonement,  241,  399. 

Tennyson,  his  In  Memoriam  quoted, 
16. 

Tertullian,  quotation  from  Harnack 
concerning,  32. 

Theologians  of  Connecticut,  3,  4,  151, 
152. 

Theological  beliefs,  changes  in,  95-97; 
controversies  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, 154;  crisis  in  New  England 
in  Bushnell's  time,  385;  develop- 
ment of  more  rational  theology, 
409. 

Theological  Institute  of  Connecticut, 
93. 

Theological  treatises  of  Bushnell, 
295. 

Thompson,  Joseph  P.,  147. 

Training  for  the  Pulpit  Manward 
(essay),  305,  312-315. 

Trinity,  Bushnell's  view  of,  57,  58, 
118-128,  139-142,  147,  148,  155-157, 
189,  192, 359, 390, 393  (note);  earlier 
conception  of,  387. 

Trumbull,  Henry  Clay,  references  to 
his  papers  on  Bushnell,  281  (note), 
303  (note). 

Truth,  obstacles  to  the  pursuit  of, 
quotation  from  Whately,  134. 

Tulloch,  Principal,  quoted  on  Arian- 
ism,  405  (note). 

Twichell,  Joseph,  quoted  on  Bush- 
nell's power  in  Hartford,  370. 

Tyler,  Bennet,  his  criticism  of  Chris- 
tian Nurture,  94,  387. 


INDEX 


425 


Ullman,  Karl,  141. 

Unconscious  Influence  (sermon),  281 ; 
reference  to,  by  Dr.  Bartol,  363. 

Unitarianisin,  Bushnell's  position  in 
regard  to,  110,  128-131,  135,  136, 
138-142,  152,  192,  403-409;  Dr. 
Bartol  as  a  representative  of,  135; 
influence  of  Unitarianism  and  Ortho- 
doxy upon  each  other,  147,  410;  a 
protest  against  Calvinism,  240,  406- 
408;  weakness  of,  385,  386;  real 
point  of  controversy,  390;  success 
of  the  movement,  391,  392. 

Unity,  nature  of,  02,  03. 

Universalism,  a  protest  against  Cal- 
vinism, 240. 

Valiant-for-truth,  Mr.,  328. 
Vicarious  Sacrifice,  The,  analysis  of, 

237-271 ;  criticism  of,  258,  270,  271, 

347,  399. 
Views  of  Christian  Nurture  and  of 

Subjects  Adjacent  thereto,  95. 

Walker,  James,  193. 

Walker,  Williston,    reference  to   his 

History  of  Congregational  Churches, 

148   (note) ;    quotation    from,    188 

(note). 
Webber,  O.  N.,  associate  pastor  with 

Bushnell,  204. 
Webster,  Daniel,  7th  of  March  speech, 

45  ;  Bunker  Hill  oration,  63. 
Wesleyan  University,  confers  degree 

of  D.  D.  on  Bushnell,  60. 
West,  Stephen,  3. 
Western   Eeserve  College,  Bushnell, 


gives  Commencement  address  at, 
1842,  61. 

What  does  Dr.  Bushnell  mean  t  criti- 
cal articles  on  Bushnell's  writings, 
94,  116  (note),  119  (note),  143,  146. 

Whately,  Archbishop,  quoted,  134. 

Whiton,  James  M.,  reference  to  his 
works,  386  (note). 

Wilhelm  Meister,  340. 

Will,  doctrines  of,  69,  70,  73,  214, 215, 
217-219. 

Willis,  N.  P.,  anecdote  of  Bushnell, 
18-20. 

Wilson,  J.  M.,  quoted  on  Latin  the- 
ology, 236. 

Winter,  quotation  on,  from  The  Moral 
Uses  of  Dark  Things,  326. 

Wise  man,  Bushnell's  description  of, 
324-326. 

Woman  suffrage,  59,  60,  319. 

Woolsey,  President,  288,  289,  292. 

Wordsworth,  William,  381. 

Work  and  Play,  address  at  Cambridge, 
163,  295,  296,  329. 

Wrath  of  the  Lamb,  The  (sermon), 
283. 

Tale  College,  primarily  a  school  of 
theology,  4;  revival  movements  in, 
23-25;  confers  degree  of  LL.  D.  on 
Bushnell,  60;  Bushnell's  address  be- 
fore the  alumni  of,  on  The  Growth 
of  Law,  63;  on  Our  Obligations  to 
the  Dead,  302,  303. 

Tale  University  School.  See  New 
Haven  Divinity  School. 

"  Tale  of  the  West,"  61. 


ELECTROTYPED  AND  PRINTED 
BY  H.   O.    HOUGHTON   AND   CO. 

(aEbe  Jftrbcrsibc  press 

CAMBRIDGE,  MASS.,  U.  S.  A. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


on 


J 


JIM  26 
DlSCHWGE-URt 

■ 

'SEP  111978 


Form  L9-Series4939 


3  1158  00066  0083 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA  000  833  918 


BX 
7260 

B9M92 


